Based on his pursuit of literary renewal, Nicanor Parra is one of the most innovative poets of the Spanish language. He is considered the greatest living Chilean poet and--along with Vicente Huidobro, founder of the avant-garde school of Creationism; Gabriela Mistral, the first Spanish American author to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1945; and Pablo Neruda, also a Nobel laureate in 1971--one of the four most outstanding Chilean poets of the twentieth century. Like Mistral and Neruda, Parra has been considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize, though unlike them, he has not received this award. Parra has influenced his own and subsequent generations of Spanish American writers, and his work has been translated into all major languages, including English, notably by North American beatnik poets--such as Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti--with whose work his has been compared.

Parra's ambition to renovate poetic discourse has given...