“I have always contended that the most important work being done today is in the field of ethnic letters. I’d like to add that within that field, the most critical pressure point pulses from the queer body of color—its representation and its cultural production,” writes Rigoberto González in the introduction to this collection of essays focused exclusively on writers of color, and particularly on Latino poetry. Divided into three sections—Critical Essays, Critical Reviews, and Critical Grace Notes—the collection discusses the works of contemporary writers such as Eduardo C. Corral, Natalie Diaz, Aracelis Girmay, and J. Michael Martinez along with venerable writers including Francisco X. Alarcón, Robert Hayden, and Juan Felipe Herrera. This installment of the Poets on Poetry series published by the University of Michigan Press demonstrates how writers who represent marginalized communities continue to reorient the direction of American poetry, and delivers rigorous, critical writing that will inspire generations of writers to come.
