Tag Jose Angel Araguz

dispatch 123022

José Angel Araguz 1 Comment

Whole lotta life keeps happening. It’s the main reason I’ve been quiet here. Like today, my partner has been out with a migraine for the greater part of the day, now evening, and I’ve been in the silence that comes with caregiving.

Well, the not-so-silent because my cat, Semilla, is here with me.

Semilla, a black cat, staring out into the camera.
Semilla, a black cat, staring out into the camera.

I’d like to share some recent highlights and publications before the year is through:

  • I was excited to contribute a short write-up for Poets & Writer’s series “Writers Recommend.” I riff a bit about inspiration as well as shoutout the work of Karla Cornejo Villavicencio and Cristela Alonzo.
  • On the Rotura (Black Lawrence Press) front, I am deeply honored to have the book reviewed recently. Thank you to Staci Halt who wrote this insightful review for The Los Angeles Review!
  • Thank you also to Angela María Spring for including Rotura in their “10 New Poetry Collections by Latinx and Caribbean Writers” over at Electric Lit! Means a great deal to be included among such a powerful set of books.
  • And looking ahead, I am excited to share in this space that my debut creative nonfiction collection, Ruin and Want, was chosen as the winning selection during Sundress Publications’ 2022 Prose Open Reading Period! This lyric memoir was a revelatory journey to write, both personally as well as craft-wise. I’m excited to have it find a home at such a great place!

If you’re reading this, thank you for being here. It means a lot to share this space. I’ll be doing some new things next year on here. I also promise to get back to reviewing and sharing in this space in the coming year as it remains something that matters to me greatly.

In the meantime, take care of yourselves out there!

Abrazos,

José 

dispatch 112422

José Angel Araguz 2 Comments
A blackout poem that reads "To take time and space is resistance."
A blackout poem that reads “To take time and space is resistance.”

Shared the above on my Instagram account @poetryamano on this the Day of Mourning with a note on taking care of one’s self during this time of the year. Whether it’s toxic family (here or elsewhere) or simply feeling left out of the big societal pressure that comes with national holidays, be kind to yourselves and take the time and space that is yours.

This week I’d like to give two celebratory shoutouts.

The cover for Testament by Luke Hankins.
The cover for Testament by Luke Hankins.

First, I’d like to celebrate Luke Hankins’ new chapbook Testament (Texas Review Press) which is now available for pre-order. I had a chance to spend time with this collection early and wrote the following statement:

“Testament shows Luke Hankins deftly at work in a ‘small glory’ of a chapbook! Whether addressing the troubled country that is America or bringing the reader into the prayer-like intimacy of resonant daily moments, Hankins’s poems here create spaces of presence and awareness that are refreshing and which reward rereading. Testament evokes its title by speaking the facts of the self in such ways that we can join Hankins in loving ‘the broken world better / that has broken me.’”

(blurb for Testament by Luke Hankins)
Bernadette Mayer sitting and waving before a microphone with a glass of wine and a water bottle.
Bernadette Mayer sitting and waving before a microphone with a glass of wine and a water bottle.

My second note of celebration is for the recent loss to the poetry community of Bernadette Mayer. Check out her poem “The Way to Keep Going in Antarctica” and join me in being “strong” in the way such poets and poems show us to be.

More soon, fam.

José