Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry

Editor: Ruben Quesada

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press (2022)

Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry collects personal and academic writing from Latino, Latin American, Latinx, and Luso poets about the nature of poetry and its practice. At the heart of this anthology lies the intersection of history, language, and the human experience. The collection explores the ways in which a people's history and language are vital to the development of a poet's imagination and insists that the meaning and value of poetry are necessary to understand the history and future of a people. The Latinx community is not a monolith, and accordingly the poets assembled here vary in style, language, and nationality. The pieces selected expose the depth of existing verse and scholarship by poets and scholars including Brenda Cárdenas, Daniel Borzutzky, Orlando Menes, and over a dozen more.

The essays not only expand the poetic landscape but extend Latinx and Latin American linguistic and geographical boundaries. Writers, educators, and students will find awareness, purpose, and inspiration in this one-of-a-kind anthology.

"This innovative collection introduces readers to a diverse collection of Latinx poets who are all transforming and rethinking the art and practice of poetry in the early twenty-first century. Its breakthrough comes in the access it gives us to the poets' thoughts about their creative process, to their relationships with art and politics, and to the complexity and variety of their unique experiences of latinidad."

–Ricardo L. Ortiz

"Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry offers a unique and refreshing look at Latinx poetry by showing the breadth and richness of Latinx thought and sensibilities in the creation of poetry."

–Liliana C. Gonzalez