Cutting-edge, influential, and even revolutionary.— Library of Congress
Iconic Puerto Rican poet Giannina Braschi writes cross-genre literature in Spanish, Spanglish, and English. Called “cutting-edge, influential, and even revolutionary” by the Library of Congress, she has created one continuous, ever-evolving body of work: the postmodern poetry of Empire of Dreams, the polyphonic Spanglish of Yo-Yo Boing!, the geopolitical tragicomedy of United States of Banana, and the Greek tragedy and Menippean satire of Putinoika. Across these books, poetry becomes theater, comedy opens into philosophy, and language becomes an act of freedom as Braschi confronts migration, incarceration, democracy, economy, revolution, and the catastrophes of the contemporary world without relinquishing creativity, love, liberty, or hope. Highly influential yet notoriously unclassifiable, her work is studied across postmodern literature, postcolonial theory, multilingual writing, performance, and political philosophy, and has inspired adaptations in music, film, graphic narrative, visual art, design, and urbanism. It returns us to what Yale editor Jonathan Brent called “the marvelous feeling of being alive.”
Braschi’s books are studied across literature, philosophy, language, theater, and cultural studies—and have inspired new work in music, film, visual art, graphic narrative, design, and urbanism.
Books by Giannina Braschi
One body of work. Four radically different books. Each creates its own architecture, rhythm, and rules.
Empire of Dreams: Postmodern Epic Poem
Before the novels came the poetry. It never left.
A postmodern classic of Latin American poetry, Empire of Dreams was hailed by Alicia Ostriker as “a masterpiece” of “relentless intensity and inventiveness”—a work that “cross-dresses poetry in the garb of advertisement, love letter, TV commercial, diary, movie criticism, celebrity confession, literary theory, bastinado, and manifesto.”
Written in Spanish and translated into English by Tess O’Dwyer, Empire of Dreams begins with Assault on Time and expands through Profane Comedy and The Intimate Diary of Solitude. Its lyric poems, prose poems, dramatic monologues, diaries, and manifestos establish a poetic current that runs through every book that follows.
Yo-Yo Boing! Spanglish Literature and Translingual Writing
panish and English ricochet through Yo-Yo Boing!, a landmark of Spanglish literature driven by argument, comedy, rhythm, and relentless conversation. The languages do not politely take turns. They interrupt, collide, and reinvent one another.
“Yo-Yo Boing! is a perfect illustration of translingual practice.… Translanguaging is not seen as a reflex or a consequence—not even a symptom—but the very essence of a social and individual reality. This translanguaging is revealed in multiple forms and in countless passages, which can even lead readers to lose consciousness of the language they are reading at any given moment.”—Francisco Moreno-Fernández, sociolinguist
United States of Banana: Postcolonial Literature and Political Philosophy
At the Statue of Liberty, Giannina, Hamlet, and Zarathustra set out to liberate Segismundo from the dungeon. Written in the aftermath of September 11, this geopolitical tragicomedy confronts empire, citizenship, freedom, and the political status of Puerto Rico.
“United States of Banana is a politically charged metaphor for the fall of the U.S. empire and the collapse of the World Trade Center, as well as a plea for subject minorities to free themselves from the yoke of domination.… Braschi rewrite[s] radical politics as high art.” —Madelena Gonzalez, cultural critic
Putinoika: Menippean Satire and Experimental Theater
Greek tragedy crashes into the age of Putin and Trump. Frenzy, plague, collusion, delusion, and pollution take the stage in an epic tragicomedy that insists on the powers of poetry, humor, and creation.
“In Giannina Braschi’s churning imagination, in her exuberant, upwelling, hilarious and mortifying performances of wonderment, howl, synchronic time, ethical insistence, and linguistic swirl, it’s not unusual to find words such as ‘generosity’ and ‘spirit’ leading, in the same sentence, to ‘welfare,’ ‘radiation,’ and ‘tax deductions.’ If, as in Ezra Pound’s translation of Aristotle, the ‘swift perception of relations’ is truly the ‘hallmark of genius,’ it’s in the brightly lit halls of Braschi’s books where poetry is tested and stamped with such a mark. Like her character, Frenzy, she’s a provocateur who believes in and pledges her fidelity only to ‘everything that exists.’”—Forrest Gander, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet
Across Disciplines. Into Other Arts.
Braschi’s books do not simply cross genres. They give many fields something to think with—and argue with.
Postmodern Literature, Postcolonial Theory, and Latinx Studies
Critics have read Braschi in relation to postmodern literature, postcolonial literature and theory, McOndo, and hysterical realism. Her books also inform scholarship in contemporary American and Latin American poetry, Puerto Rican and Latinx studies, contemporary political philosophy, Spanglish and multilingual writing, translation, migration, diaspora, experimental theater, performance, and visual culture.
No single category contains the work. The range shows how differently Braschi’s books can be entered: as poetry, fiction, philosophy, political satire, linguistic experiment, or theater.
Literary Adaptations in Film, Music, Theater, and Visual Art
That academic reach has an equally unusual creative afterlife. Braschi’s texts have inspired chamber music by Gabriel Bouche Caro, short films by Michael Somoroff, paintings by Michael Zansky, a graphic novel by Joakim Lindengren, and stage work by Juan Pablo Félix.
Her words have also entered photography, artist books, television comedy, architecture, industrial design, and ecological urbanism. Then there is Ian Stell’s Giannina Chair. A Braschi poem or novel does not remain confined to the page.
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Giannina Braschi: Puerto Rican Poet, Author, and Political Philosopher
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Giannina Braschi was a tennis champion, singer, and fashion model before devoting herself to literature. She studied in Madrid, Rome, London, and Rouen and earned a doctorate in Hispanic literature from Stony Brook University.
Braschi has taught at Rutgers University, the City University of New York, and Colgate University. Her academic work includes Sí/pero no: La poesía de Bécquer, a book-length study of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, and essays on Cervantes, Garcilaso, Machado, and Lorca.
Her life’s work is the subject of Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi, a collection of essays spanning literature, philosophy, political theory, cultural studies, and the arts.
Selected Awards and Honors
An iconic Puerto Rican poet and author whose work has transformed the boundaries of contemporary literature and political thought, Braschi has been recognized with major lifetime achievement awards, including the Enrique Anderson Imbert National Award from the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (North American Academy of the Spanish Language), the Angela Y. Davis Award from the American Studies Association, the Fray Luis de León Medal for Ibero-American Poetry, and the Cambio16 Prize.
Braschi has received awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, PEN America, and the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. In 2024, her native city of San Juan honored her contributions to Puerto Rican culture worldwide.