.
Rhapsody in a Circle / Rapsodia en círculo
Novela (tres capítulos)
.
El título mismo sugiere conflictos y tensiones psicológicas, aunque por el vaivén entre lugares tan distantes unos de otros, como México y China, insinúa problemas geopolíticos de alto nivel, irresolubles para la diplomacia más competente. Evocar el Medio Oriente es presuponer juegos de sombras y escaparates para situar a los personajes con sus respectivos dilemas, miedos y sueños rotos. Y como no puede haber novela sin conflicto, es el gozo del lector conocer las entretelas del alma de los personajes en zozobra. Agradecidas Señas publica este fragmento de la novela Rhapsody in a Circle (2025), del poeta Marlon L. Fick, con autorización suya y del sello Guernica World Editions.
.
The title itself suggests conflicts and psychological tensions, although through the back-and-forth between places as distant from one another as Mexico and China, it hints at high-level geopolitical problems, unsolvable even for the most competent diplomacy. To evoke the Middle East is to presuppose games of shadows and showcases that place the characters amid their respective dilemmas, fears, and broken dreams. And since there can be no novel without conflict, it is the reader’s joy to discover the innermost workings of the souls of characters in turmoil. Agradecidas Señas publishes this excerpt from the novel Rhapsody in a Circle (2025), by the poet Marlon L. Fick, with his authorization and that of Guernica World Editions.
>>> LEE AQUÍ LOS TRES CAPÍTULOS
.
Marlon L. Fick is an Associate Professor of English. He holds a BA from the University of Kansas (Philosophy), an MA from New York University (Poetics/English), and PhD from the University of Kansas (English). Marlon founded the rock band Animula in 2002 and has written and produced four albums. He is author of three poetry collections, a book of short stories, and the novel The Nowhere Man (Jaded Ibis, 2015), and is editor/translator of The River Is Wide / El río es ancho: Twenty Mexican Poets (New Mexico, 2005), as well as XEIXA: 14 Catalan Poet (Tupelo, 2018). His work, The Tenderness and the Wood, appeared from Guernica Press (2020). His novel, Rhapsody in a Circle, has just appeared from Guernica, 2025. Awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, ConaCulta in Mexico, and Institut Ramon Llull in Catalonia, he now teaches at the University of Texas–Permian Basin. He specializes in Comparative Poetics.
