Tag Black Lawrence Press

new book pre-order, cover, & other news!

José Angel Araguz 2 Comments

Just a quick post to share the news that my forthcoming poetry book, Rotura, is now available for pre-order from Black Lawrence Press. I am excited to share the cover as well featuring artwork by Heather Goodwind.

A photo of the book cover for Rotura featuring artwork by Heather Goodwind

I am also excited to share the wonderful blurb that Juan Felipe Herrera was kind enough to write for this project:

A moving book where the voice undulates dark and soul-filled along cracked borders, rising boundaries and worn “brown gods” along the routes, grasping at fading shimmers of truth, family, longings and stark existence. Direct and tender, knowing and lilting, shifting and wandering—in all this “rotura” rupture there is warmth, love, suffering and purpose for the long haul ahead. A magnificent, profound and necessary text from the Latinx Renaissance.

Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States, Emeritus

Stay tuned for announcements of virtual events that are in the works, the first coming up on December 4th (more soon!).

In the meantime, consider pre-ordering your copy and check out one of the keystone poems from the book “American Studies” published at Terrain.org.

book news & co.

José Angel Araguz 2 Comments

Excited to share that my next book, we say Yes way before you, is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press in March 2020! You can read about the project as well as two poems from it in this profile. Special thanks to Diane Goettel and the BLP crew for being so welcoming!

Photo of a pair of traffic lights on green by Raphael Brasileiro on Pexels.com

Been sitting on this news for a few weeks. I actually got the phone call a day or two before we moved all our belongings to a new city. I’ve been going through a difficult time specifically in terms of how I see myself as a writer. Getting this news was a win I didn’t know I needed.

Part of this new book process has me writing for permissions, something that is new to me and which this article by Jane Friedman gives invaluable advice about. Along with learning a new literacy and genre of writing, there’s the work of reconciling the metaphor in the language, the word permission itself. I often get stuck in such conceptual/metaphorical tangents while doing the “office work” type of things of a writing life. The very language of publication–submission, rejection, acceptance, etc.–is charged with (un)intentional and telling meaning.

One last thing to share: I’ve begun reading bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress and have been floored by how much I’m connecting with the book. It helps to see someone else do work in the classroom that I have felt self-conscious about, like connecting and wanting to reflect and honor the knowledge students bring with them.

’til next time,

José