speaking with grackles by soapberry trees
Winner of the Texas Institute of Letters' John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry, César L. de León's debut book, speaking with grackles by soapberry trees, is a collection of poems that make their home in the Borderlands of Texas. There are poems rooted in childhood and young-adult memories like "El Mundo" and "Learning to Swim," and works like "The Migration of the Mariposa" twin poems and others that deal with queerness, identity, and relationships -familial and romantic. The inevitable grappling and coping that comes from living in a contested space, like the border, at a time when gun violence, police brutality, immigrant incarceration, and racism have increasingly become part of everyday life around the country can be found in poems like "River Escucha," "Sugar Skull," and others. Throughout the collection, the spirit of the borderlands marks its presence in a form of spirituality connecting the speaker with the natural world around him; birds aren't the only things that he communes with. Lastly, like the ever-mutable nature of the land, more than a few of the poems in this collection range in form with creative and intentional use of white space or by fashioning pieces like "American Mathematics" and "Cloud Watching" in forms atypical for poetry.
Author: César Leonardo de León
Publisher: Flowersong Press
Published: 06/23/2021
Pages: 92
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.32lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.22d
ISBN: 9781953447722
About the Author
de León, César Leonardo: - Born in Monterrey, Mexico, César L. de León now lives and works in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas where he is an active participant in the local literary scene. He holds an MFA in creative writing and a graduate certificate in Mexican American Studies from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He is one of four poet-organizers for Poets Against Walls which allows him to further engage with the community through workshops, public readings, and other events centered on social justice and border issues. His work has been published in Queen Mob's Tea House, Pilgrimage, The Acentos Review, Yellow Chair Review, La Bloga, and the anthologies Pulse/Pulso: In Remembrance of Orlando, Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands, The Border Crossed Us: An Anthology to End Apartheid, Texas Weather Anthology, and Boundless: The Official Anthology of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival among others. He has received awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.--