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  • Uncharted Waters

Uncharted Waters

Proverse Prize 2020

Paola Caronni


English , 2021/11 Proverse Hong Kong

Tags: Poetry

215 x 140 mm , 118pp ISBN / ISSN : 978-988-8492-40-4

  • US$22.00


In Stock

Uncharted waters embodies, for Paola Caronni, physical places as well as literary tropes. 

Uncharted waters separate the poet from her Motherland, and keep apart not only continents, but people, traditions, sights, sounds and smells, encountered during her many travels. The Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, the seas of Asia and beyond, as well as rivers, lakes, and water in general, are a constant presence in this collection. 

Uncharted Waters is also about acquiring, using, and writing in a foreign language, English, a deep ocean which, in all its linguistic and literary expressions, has always fascinated the poet. As in the physical world, these waters border realms that apparently look safe – and the author, in fact, writes her first poetry collection in English – but they harbour many dark caverns, unknown secrets too. 

 Throughout the collection, water is a challenge but always represents renewal. The poet observes how life unfolds, from East to West: the transformation of Hong Kong over the years; the beauties and troubles of Asia and of other countries; the re-visitation of her homeland – a place of longing and contradictions – which appears at times blurred, after many years of living abroad. And in the last section of the book, through the wide use of metaphors, the reader will find vivid descriptions of the many facets of everyday life – among which are love, friendship, motherhood, and writing. 


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COMMENTS

“Clear-eyed, smart, completely alert...the speaker of Paola Caronni’s poems covers life on earth in full—her words fulfill our need to travel, to explore, perceive in new ways.”

―Donald Berger, Johns Hopkins University, USA.

“In the midst of these lyrics, one breathes the tension to reach the perfect synthesis of East and West.”

―Gabriella Montanari, poet, writer, publisher, and translator. 

“Caronni’s poems have the power to connect, to nourish and to sustain.”

―Juan José Morales, author and editor, Hong Kong.

“Uncharted Waters dares to offer us a still too rare commodity in our contemporary and overlapping worlds, generosity.”

―Page Richards, University of Hong Kong.

“An intelligent, intimate account of cultural pilgrimage.”

―Jennifer Wong, poetry reviewer for Asian Review of Books.


PAOLA CARONNI was born in Italy and has been living in Asia for over twenty years. Now in Hong Kong, she works as a translator, interpreter and tutor of the Italian language, and teaches Creative Writing to a group of asylum-seekers. Paola holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Hong Kong and an MA in English Language and Literature from the University of Milan. 

Paola is Director of the English edition of the online lifestyle, travel and culture magazine, Ciao Magazine. 

Her poems have been published in the various anthologies and online literary journals and she is very active in the local Hong Kong poetry scene. A main theme in Paola’s poetry is her exploration of the struggle she experiences as one coming from the West but belonging to the East. 


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