Alejandra Pizarnik

Alejandra Pizarnik was an Argentinean poet born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in Avellaneda, just outside of Buenos Aires. She grew up in a mixed Spanish and Yiddish environment, eventually pursuing a degree in philosophy, then journalism, and finally literature at the University of Buenos Aires before dropping out. She also studied painting with surrealist Juan Batlle Planas. While living in Paris (1960–1964) among other Latin American expats, she published poems, critical essays, and translations of French works in well-known periodicals such as Cuadernos. Much of her poetry was dark, dealing with death, guilt, and mental instability, from which she herself suffered. She died young, of an arguably accidental suicide, after a long history of depression. “The Dead and the Rain” is one of her few works that relate directly to her Jewish heritage.