La tercera luz: A Poetic Journey Through Spain tells the story of the birth of the poetry collection, Silence from the Forest (Silencios del bosque) by Maria Esther Bendala Pavón. But it is also the story of a poet translator’s awakening at the intersection of loneliness and desire. When Stanley decides to leave her Midwest cubicle for Spain, chance encounters spiral her into intimate proximity with a mysterious, beautiful Spanish poet suffering from brain cancer named Esther. We also meet fortune tellers, literary companions with varying degrees of allegiance, architecture vibrating with layers of history, and most haunting, an elusive beloved whose abandonment propels Stanley deep into the labyrinth of her own heart. Ultimately, La tercera luz is a rhapsody of arriving, death muse faced and the triumph of not one, but two books in hand, heart’s path met with ceaseless passion and generosity despite setback: “I want / to be lost so I can say / I walked that path–I was there, / singing the dark days of the Córdoba moon.”

In lyrical, often dazzling prose, woven throughout with poems that weep, call, sing, and shimmer, poet, author, Corinne Stanley takes us to the Spain of our heart’s deepest imaginings in La tercera luz. This expertly crafted tale entwines the artistic yearnings and creative passions of two women, both poets – set in each other’s path by a mythopoetic destiny… Esther Bendala Pavón, a prodigy Spanish poet fallen into obscurity, terminally ill with brain cancer, longs for her poems to have voice in the world after her death, and our Poet, feeling stuck in an academic career that has ceased to have meaning for her, aches to be ignited back to vibrant life…to reclaim her voice and her passion. The two poets meet on the Avenida de Hercules in Seville, Spain, and their dual journey to fulfillment begins, braided together by mysterious synchronicities, guided by omens and signs, and the presence of the Divine Feminine.

Set against the luminous backdrop of the Spanish landscape, and the haunting vestiges of la Convivencia, La tercera luz is an incandescent tribute to the ever- refilling well of possibilities when we have the courage to make the journeys of the heart. When Corinne Stanley, herself a cancer survivor, reaches out across oceans and cultures and generously gifts Esther Bendala Pavón her longed-for place in the literary sun, she ensures her own triumphant legacy.

About the Author

Corinne Stanley Corinne Stanley is a poet, memorist and artist who lives in Iowa City. She has published two books of poetry (Breathe into the Knowing, They Say this Is Light), a translation of Spanish poet Esther Bendala Pavón’s work (Silence from the Forest/Silencio del bosque), a memoir (La tercera luz: A Poetic Journey Through Spain) and a forthcoming poetry chapbook from Dancing Girl Press, (Down into the Upward Golden.) Her poems appear in Feminist Studies, The House of Zolo, Quartet Journal and are forthcoming in the San Diego Poetry Annual. Her collages have been sold at the Iowa City Farmers’ Market and other venues.  Forthcoming exhibitions will be held at the Iowa City Spring Gallery Walk, the Washington Public Library, and the Burlington Art Center (2024.)