Arturo Desimone
Arturo Desimone, Arubian-Argentinian writer and visual artist, was born in 1984 on the island Aruba which he inhabited until the age of 22, when he emigrated to the Netherlands. He relocated to Argentina while working on a long fiction project about childhoods, diasporas, islands and religion. Desimone’s articles, poetry and fiction pieces have previously appeared in the Drunken Boat Poetry Review, CounterPunch, Círculo de Poesía (Spanish), Island Magazine, Acentos Review, New Orleans Review and in the Latin American views section of OpenDemocracy. He writes a blog about Latin American poetry for Anomaly.
All essays by Arturo Desimone
The Last Great Author of Curaçao? On Frank Martinus Arion
The most famous writer of the Netherlands Antilles appeared on the rooftop, wearing what seemed like a doctor’s short-sleeved shirt. Under the parted wiry hair, his shaven ebony face was awash with the dark blue hues made by the sunlight breaking through the blue vinyl covering of the bar. Arion’s poems, at times mystical, speak of how the Antillean poet senses himself loved by the elements on the island where he was born. The breeze is known to be more forgiving on Cura√ßao, dreamier, and kinder than on Aruba, where physicians say the constant, pushy north-east wind provokes disease in the muscles and the spine. This superstition was confirmed as soon Arion sat down before me: a gust entered his physician’s shirt through the collar, pushing the buttoned fabric outwards, as if tugging at him.