Poetry News

Triple Review Features Carlos Andres Gomez, Eduardo C. Corral, and Benjamin Garcia

Originally Published: November 18, 2020

"This is a brave book that lingers on, a must read from one of my favourite Latinx poets writing today," says Leo Boix about Carlos Andres Gomez's Fracture (University of Winsconsin Press). Boix reviews the book alongside Eduardo C. Corral's Guillotine (Graywolf) and Benjamin Garcia's Thrown In The Throat (Milkweed Editions) for the UK's Morning Star. His take on Corral:

Guillotine (Graywolf Press, £13) is Eduardo C Corral['s] second poetry collection and one that cements him as one of the most exciting Latinx writers of his generation. The son of Mexican immigrants, a lecturer at North Carolina State University[,] Corral explores his Latin America heritage, the Mexican diaspora to the US, as well as aspects of bilingualism, sexual identity and queer desires.

Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel is based on the photograph Humane Borders Water Station by Delilah Montoya: “After writing my ekphrastic poem, the water station barrels stayed with me — I kept imaging stories, rants, wishes and confessions that might be scratched into the blue of the barrels. Speakers began to arrive: Mexican & Central American immigrants making visible the worlds inside them,” Corral explains.

These poems, where Corral switches from Spanish to English and vice-versa, are filled with anger and grief, but also with hope. He delves into the world of migrants crossing the US/Mexican border, their moving survival stories of what they leave behind and what lies ahead.

Find all of this great triple review here.