Red Missed Aches Read Missed Aches Red Mistakes Read Mistakes

Author: Jennif(f)er Tamayo

Publisher: Switchback Books (2011)

In this bold and energetic debut, temporal malapropisms become purposeful play through Tamayo's poetics of code switching and homophonics. As Tamayo tackles the frustrations of the transnational immigrant experience, language "mistakes" become "missed aches" and she writes mother and mother-tongue into one as "mouth her." A red thread intrudes throughout this frenetic mixed-genre assemblage, suturing identity to the page by erasing text, embroidering images, and stitching collage together. Cathy Park Hong, 2010 Gatewood Prize judge, promises the "brash, political, and bracingly original" [Red Missed Aches] will "startle you awake and demand your attention."