Books Acquired Recently: Queer Latinx Edition

Anzaldúa, Gloria. The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader. Ed. AnaLouise Keating. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009.

I’ve been reading Anzaldúa’s Interviews/Entrevistas, which is amazing, so I want to explore more of her work. I am often skeptical of authors’ “Readers” because I would rather read work in its original context, but Anzaldúa’s Reader includes a lot of work that was not published during her lifetime.

Silvera, Adam. More Happy Than Not. New York: Soho Teen, 2015.

I recently ran across an essay about this book and decided to buy it because it is about a queer Puerto Rican from New York City, a narrative that fits my own.

Books Acquired Recently

Corral, Eduardo C. Slow Lightning. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.

I was browsing at the Colgate University bookstore the other day as something to do while my partner was at a doctor’s appointment when I came across this poetry collection. I haven’t read any of Corral’s work before but have heard good things about it from my colleagues, so I decided to buy his book.

Espada, Martín. Vivas to Those Who Have Failed. 2016. New York: W.W. Norton, 2017.

I love Espada’s work and decided to buy this poetry collection because I have been writing about Walt Whitman lately and I know that Espada is also a big Whitman fan, as can be seen via the choice of the title for his book. I am about half way through it, and while it is mostly not about Whitman, it is quite enjoyable thus far.

Varghese, Ricky, ed. Raw: PrEP, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Barebacking. Regina, SK: University of Regina Press, 2019.

Tim Dean’s 2009 book Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking is one of the best scholarly texts I’ve ever read. I bought it at the 2011 MLA convention and it has played a significant role about my thinking on sexual risk ever since. I was thus tremendously excited to hear about Varghese’s collection, which is a collection of essays examining the legacy of Dean’s book on its tenth anniversary.

 

Books Acquired Recently: All Mennonite Edition

Dueck, Nathan. A Very Special Episode. Hamilton, ON: Buckrider Books, 2019.

Dueck is a Mennonite poet whom I know and his third collection of poetry just came out. I bought it right away and look forward to reading it.

Stoltzfus, Donna J. Captive. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2018.

Stolzfus’s family and mine have been friends since the 1960s. This book for adolescents is about German POWs who worked for Mennonites in Pennsylvania during World War II.

Books Acquired Recently

Blanco, Richard. How to Love a Country: Poems. Boston: Beacon Press, 2019.

I was browsing the poetry section at my local Barnes & Noble today (perhaps surprisingly, they had a rather impressive selection of new stuff along with the “classics”) and came across Blanco’s new collection. I read a few poems and enjoyed them, so decided to buy it. I’ve never read any of his poetry before even though I teach his memoir in one of my writing classes.

Irby, Samantha. Meaty: Essays. New York: Vintage Books, 2018.

This is a revised edition of Irby’s first book, which I also found while browsing at B&N. I love Irby’s second book, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, so buying this one was an easy choice.

Negrón-Muntaner, Frances. Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2004.

This book is somewhat old, but sadly not that much has been written about Puerto Rican work in the arts since then, so I feel that it is necessary to read it because part of my current project includes a discussion of Puerto Rican literature.

Books Acquired Recently: All Queer Edition

Johnson, E. Patrick. Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.

I love the pieces of Johnson’s work that I have previously read–he may be the most important currently active black queer academic–and ordered this book as soon as it came out.

Menon, Alok V. Femme in Public. N.p.: Alok V. Menon, 2017.

I recently read about this chapbook in madison moore’s excellent book Fabulous, and ordered it right away. It is a mixture of poetry and photographs. You can order it here.

Books Acquired Recently: Poetry Edition

Jones, Patricia Spears. A Lucent Fire: New and Selected Poems. Buffalo: White Pine Press, 2015.

I recently read an interview with Jones in The Writer’s Chronicle, and her work sounded interesting enough that I decided to buy some of it. I am enjoying it so far.

Myles, Eileen. I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems 1975-2014. 2015. New York: Ecco, 2016.

I’ve read some about Myles and she sounds interesting, but I have never read any of her work. I have been feeling the need for more poetry lately, so I decided to finally break down and buy one of her books.

Books Acquired Recently

Anzaldúa, Gloria E. Interviews/Entrevistas. Ed. AnaLouise Keating. New York: Routledge, 2000.

More and more of what I am interested in reading these days cites Anzaldúa, so I have been starting to explore more of her work myself. I am especially eager to read this book because I have also been investigating the role of life writing (a category which I argue includes interviews) as theory.

moore, madison. Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018.

I recently ran across a citation of this book and it sounded interesting, so I decided to buy it and read it for myself.

Books Acquired Recently

Díaz, Jaquira. Ordinary Girls: A Memoir. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2019.

I read an interview with Díaz in Poets & Writers a few months ago about this book and pre-ordered it immediately because I am looking for as many Puerto Rican memoirs as I can find since I am working on my own.

Machado, Carmen Maria. In the Dream House: A Memoir. Minneapolis: Gray Wolf Press, 2019.

I love Machado’s short story collection and have been eagerly anticipating this memoir ever since I heard about it a year ago. It just came out this week and my copy arrived yesterday. Twitter has been going crazy with praise for it (I just got a Twitter account! @shankcruz–follow me and I’ll follow you back), and I can’t wait to read it this weekend.

Muradyan, Luisa. American Radiance. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018.

Muradyan gave a fantastic poetry reading at Utica College yesterday, and I bought her book and got it signed. I love how her work is infused with 1980s pop culture, kind of like an ’80s version of Frank O’Hara.

Books Acquired Recently

Enns, Victor. Love & Surgery. Regina, SK: Radiant Press, 2019.

Enns has played an important role in the Mennonite literary scene because he was the founder and sometimes editor of Rhubarb, the journal of the Mennonite Literary Society. I have not read his earlier work, which dates back to Turnstone Press’s chapbook days of the late 1970s, but decided to buy his latest collection because it is in part about his divorce, a subject that has affected my own life. I began reading it as soon as it came in the mail and it is an excellent book.

Wheitner, Dave. The Snuggle Party Guidebook: Create Deeper Friendships, Decrease Loneliness, & Enjoy Nurturing Touch Community. Portland, OR: Divergent Drummer Publications, 2014.

I have heard of snuggle parties, sometimes also known as cuddle parties, but know very little about them. They seem like a queer subject, so I decided to buy this book to learn more.

Books Acquired Recently

Cuadros, Gil. City of God. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1994.

I recently read about this book dealing with the AIDS epidemic and decided to buy it because of its use of multiple genres.

Hancock, Ange-Marie. Intersectionality: An Intellectual History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Intersectionality is an important concept in my current writing project so I am trying to read a lot of recent scholarship on it, and thus bought this book. I am about half way through it and thus far it has been helpful.

Hardy, Janet W., and Dossie Easton. The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love. 3rd ed. California: Ten Speed Press, 2017.

I know people who are poly and I have read several novels depicting poly relationships but I have read very little nonfiction about it. I have recently read several pieces of scholarship that reference poly manuals to explore the idea of being theoretically poly–that is, using ideas from different academic disciplines in one’s work–so I decided to buy one because such an approach is an emphasis in my current project.

Moore, Carley. 16 Pills: Essays. Red Wing, MN: Tinderbox Editions, 2018.

I recently read Moore’s new novel The Not Wives and loved it; it was possibly the best book I’ve read this year. Therefore, I decided to order her recent essay collection.

Pérez, Laura E. Eros Ideologies: Writings on Art, Spirituality, and the Decolonial. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019.

I got a promotional email about this book from the publisher and ordered it right away because my current project focuses on the intersection between religion and writing, which is a kind of art.