Once I Forget
Poems
Will be published approx. on 27. November 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
76 pages
978-1-997742-16-6 (ISBN)
Description
"Once I Forget," a collection of poems by John P. Portelli, originally written in Maltese and translated by Aaron Aquilina and John Martin. These sections include the title page, a preface by Professor Norbert Bugeja, and portions of the poems themselves, which explore themes of memory, exile, loss, and the poet's childhood village, ¿ad-Dingli. The preface highlights Portelli's struggle with forgetfulness and his focus on the vanishing past, connecting his work to literary figures like Yeats and Walcott. Furthermore, the source provides biographical notes on the author, translators, and cover artist, Carmel Micallef, along with endorsements that praise the poetry's transcendence of the lyric and its powerful exploration of nostalgia and the impossibility of return.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Canada
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight
128 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-997742-16-6 (9781997742166)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
John P. Portelli originally from Malta, is a professor emeritus in the Department of Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. Besides 11 academic books, he has published ten collections of poetry (four in Maltese and English, one in English and French, three in Maltese, one in English (Here Was, available from Amazon) and one in Greek, The Loves of yesterday), two collections of short stories (one translated into English and published as Everyday Encounters), and a novel, Everyone but Faiza (Burlington, ON: Word and Deed, 2021). His literary work has been translated into Italian, Romanian, Greek, Farsi, Arabic, Korean, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish. His latest collection, Here Was has been translated and published in Romanian in June 2023, in Arabic in November 2023, in Italian in January 2024, in Farsi in February 2024, in Turkish in May 2024. Here Was was short-listed for the Canadian Book Club Award in October 2024. Five of his books have been short-listed for the Malta Book Council Annual Literary Award. He now lives between Toronto and Malta, and beyond!
His latest collection is The Shadow: Poems for Gaza (October 2024), co-authored with Ahmed Miqdad.