Dear Friends,
We're exited to announce that Raquel Salas Rivera's while they sleep (under the bed is another country) is now available for pre-order!
50% of all pre-orders of Raquel's book will be donated directly to The Maria Fund, an organization dedicated to supporting emergency relief efforts as well as long-term organizing to build an equitable Puerto Rico.
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| while they sleep (under the bed is another country) refuses to sweep up the shards of Hurricane María’s aftermath. Written in dialogic fragments and intersped with prose poems reflecting on the lasting impact of colonial trauma, it is arranged around the two different discourses. The bed on which America sleeps, and which America has made, is built on the fear that the nations it has oppressed will rise up against it, a monstrous shadow in a child’s nightmare. Written in English, while they sleep points to an imperialist American identity: the dormant body of the text. Answering in Spanish, under the bed is another country is the footnote, the monster under the bed, the colony: Puerto Rico. |
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| Cover and interior art by Mariana Ramos Ortiz, and cover design by Zoe Norvell. "Flatly, this is among the most moving books of crisis I have read in more than two decades by a frighteningly talented poet." "Out of the impossible, writing the endless lines of the disaster, Raquel Salas Rivera has been talking to us all along." "Salas
Rivera, with stunning clarity, juxtaposes the hollow language of
witness with the language of survival, drowned out by the colonial
grammars of institutional violence, bureaucracy, and performative
politics." "Porque
el huracán no solo impactó la isla sino también su lenguaje, y es con
esas palabras rotas que Raquel Salas Rivera ha escrito este libro
conmovedor y tan urgente.” Pre-order and find out more about the book here (ships late Feb./early March). |
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| Raquel Salas Rivera es la poeta laureada de la ciudad de Filadelfia del 2018-19. Es la autora de while they sleep (under the bed is another country)
publicado por Birds, LLC en el 2019 y fue la recipiente inaugural del
Ambroggio Prize de la Academia de Poetas Americanos por su libro x/ex/exis. Cuenta con la publicación de seis plaquetas y cuatro poemarios adicionales. Su cuarto libro, lo terciario/the tertiary, fue finalista para el Premio Nacional del Libro del 2018 y fue seleccionado por Remezcla, Entropy, Literary Hub, mitú, Book Riot y Publishers Weekly como uno de los mejores poemarios del 2018. Del 2016-2018 fue co-editora de la revista literaria The Wanderer y co-editora de Puerto Rico en mi corazón,
una colección bilingüe de volantes de poetas puertorriqueños
contemporáneos. Es la recipiente de becas del Sundance Institute, el
Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, el Arizona Poetry Center y
CantoMundo. Ama y vive por Puerto Rico, Filadelfia y un mundo libre de la supremacía blanca. Raquel Salas Rivera is the 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. They are the author of while they sleep (under the bed is another country) from Birds, LLC in 2019 and the inaugural recipient of the Ambroggio Prize from the Academy of American Poets for their book x/ex/exis. They are also the author of six chapbooks and four other full-length poetry books. Their fourth book, lo terciario/the tertiary, was on the 2018 National Book Award Longlist, and was selected by Remezcla, Entropy, Literary Hub, mitú, Book Riot, and Publishers Weekly as one of the best poetry books of 2018. From 2016-2018, they were co-editor of The Wanderer and co-editor of Puerto Rico en mi corazón, a collection of bilingual broadsides of contemporary Puerto Rican poets. They have received fellowships and residencies from the Sundance Institute, the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, the Arizona Poetry Center, and CantoMundo. They love and live for Puerto Rico, Philadelphia, and a world free of white supremacy. PRE-ORDER (ships in late Feb/early March) |