Description
Poetry. Asian American Studies. These 28 poems are Barbara Jane Reyes at her urban political and poetic best. Of the collection, M. Evelina Galang, author of HER WILD AMERICAN SELF and ONE TRIBE, writes: "Scribe of global soundscape, Reyes builds upon the heartbeat of literary and blood ancestors, feeding her 'mythic thirst for home' as she journeys back to cities devastated and torn by the politics of race, history, class and sexuality, greeting her like an outsider. And still, despite the cities' fall from grace, each gritty image, drawn on multiple languages and rhythms, is a love song, a reflection, a naming of the self. Bittersweet, powerful and precise, I adore this important book and the work of Barbara Jane Reyes." FOR THE CITY THAT NEARLY BROKE ME is the inaugural publication in Aztlan Libre Press's Indigenous Voices Series. The Indigenous Voices Series will publish important literary, artistic and cultural works by American Indians and other world indigenous voices.
Author Bio
Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Diwata (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2010), recently noted as a finalist for the California Book Award. She was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003) and POETA EN SAN FRANCISCO (Tinfish Press, 2006), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets, and INVOCATION TO DAUGHTERS (City Lights Publishers, 2017). Her chapbooks, Easter Sunday (2008) and Cherry (2008), are published by Ypolita Press and Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs respectively. Her latest chapbook is FOR THE CITY THAT NEARLY BROKE ME, published by Aztlan Libre Press IN 2012. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Arroyo Literary Review, Asian Pacific American Journal, CHAIN, Filipinas Magazine, HAMBONE, Hyphen, Interlope, Kartika Review, Lantern Review, Latino Poetry Review, among others. A Mellon Foundation Fellow, she received her B.A. in Ethnic Studies at U.C. Berkeley and her M.F.A. at San Francisco State University. She is an adjunct professor at University of San Francisco's Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program, where she teaches Filipino/a Literature in Diaspora, and Filipina Lives and Voices in Literature. She lives with her husband, poet Oscar Bermeo, in Oakland, where she is co-editor of Doveglion Press.
Author City: OAKLAND, CA USA