The University of Arizona Press
September 29, 2021
Orion Magazine’s poetry editor, Camille T. Dungy, featured four University of Arizona Press poetry collections in this month’s issue celebrating Latinx Heritage Month.
At the top of the review list is Urayoán Noel‘s Transversal, from our award-winning Camino del Sol series edited by Rigoberto González.
From Dungy: “That I am writing this mini-review only in English means I will leave out huge parts of what makes Transversal such a wonder and whopper to read. Moving fluidly between English, Spanish, Spanglish, and even more, this book uses language as a tool (read: monkey wrench; read: hammer; read: carabineer clip; read: steam engine; read: love).”
Dungy also reviewed Count by Valerie Martínez and x/ex/exis: poemas para la nación by Raquel Salas Rivera, the first recipient of the Academy of American Poets’ Ambroggio Prize.
Dungy invited other established poets to review other Latinx collections. Gloria Muñoz, author of Danzirly, an Academy of American Poets’ Ambroggio Prize winner, reviewed Mara Pastor‘s Deuda Natal, the most recent Ambroggio Prize recipient.
From Muñoz: “Deuda Natal calls us to carry the environmental disregard and abandon of Puerto Rico and of our entire planet. It is a loss we bundle and hold with care as we look into its face and wonder how and what if and what now? Pastor’s poems are maps to help us make sense of our past and future migrations. Feminism and environmentalism intersect on pages that assess our relationship to nature, materialism, hope, and ourselves as byproducts of history and society.”
To read all the recommendations, head here.
