Old Scratch Press presents a live event!
This special online poetry reading and book launch will spotlight:
Alan Bern, Dreams of the Return
Anthony Doyle, Jonah’s Map of the Whale
Virginia Watts, Tracing Bodies
Date: Saturday, October 25
Time: 2:00 PM PT | 5:00 PM ET
Format: Virtual meeting (Zoom)
Please register for the event here.
The lead poem, "Native" of my latest poetry chapbook, Simultaneous States (Bainbridge Island Press, 2025) was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by the wonderful editors of said press.
I'm very excited and honored that they thought the poem was worthy of the recognition!
"Native" is two-part poem that begins in my childhood in Puerto Rico attending a school on a U.S. Army base and ends with my current life in Miami, Florida. It deals with identity issues that many Hispanic persons face when growing up in this country. It was a very timely honor to receive during Hispanic Heritage month!
Back in July, Tamarah Rockwood of Bainbridge Island Press dedicated an entire podcast to "Native" as part of their Poetics Podcast series. Her incredible insight and sensitivity surpassed all my expectations.
This innovative and dynamic press with a new vision for chapbook publishing has published my poetry chapbook, Simultaneous States!
My new chapbook, Simultaneous States, consists of 16 poems inspired by the experience of being two things at once---to feel both native and alien, both spirit and flesh, both the observer and the observed, both in the present and in the past. Many of the poems depict encounters and visitations that draw attention to these parallel experiences, some in reality, and some only in the imagination.
After auditing a class, The Library of Borges, with FIU professor Rhona Trauvitch, I was inspired to write this poem, In Memory of Borges, which was later accepted for publication by Label Me Latina/o and published in the Fall of 2024.
