A Song of Dismantling
Subtitle
Poems
In this dynamic debut collection, Fernando Pérez employs lyric and nonce forms to interrogate identity politics and piece together a complex family history. The book embodies fragmentation in form and story, exploring how migration affects relationships between people of different generations. Pérez invites readers on the journey as his family story unfolds over time and distance.
Part of the Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series.
Bio
Fernando Pérez, a 2010 graduate of Arizona State University's MFA program in creative writing, teaches at Bellevue College. His poems have been widely published in literary journals, including Crab Orchard Review, Más Tequila Review, Exquisite Corpse and Hinchas de Poesia.
Praise for this book
These poems move fluidly through transnational spaces; Pérez carefully breaks apart--syllable by syllable--the stories we've been told and sutures them back together again, different. Images turn and turn again with freshness.
Jane Wong, author "Overpour"
'A Song of Dismantling' is a marvelous debut. . . . Pérez knows that for us Latinx the personal has always been political. Indeed, the speaker's abuelita, both curandera and familial warrior, will tell us how 'she shared / her pillow with a rifle.' . . . These poems bring me hope that our ancestors remain with us as we struggle ever forward. I am grateful for this book.
Jennifer Givhan, author "Landscape with Headless Mama"
