My Book of the Dead: New Poems

Product Description

For more than thirty years, Ana Castillo has been mesmerizing and inspiring readers from all over the world with her passionate and fiery poetry and prose. Now the original Xicanista is back to her first literary love, poetry, and to interrogating the social and political upheaval the world has seen over the last decade. Angry and sad, playful and wise, Castillo delves into the bitter side of our world–the environmental crisis, COVID-19, ongoing systemic racism and violence, children in detention camps, and the Trump presidency–and emerges stronger from exploring these troubling affairs of today. Drawings by Castillo created over the past five years are featured throughout the collection and further showcase her connection to her work as both a writer and a visual artist. My Book of the Dead is a remarkable collection that features a poet at the height of her craft.

Review

“In
My Book of the Dead you do not delve into the sweet hereafter as if in a level of Dante’s Hell, but into the mystical, magical realism breathing life into the quiescence of the everlasting moment of the here and now, caught up in the impossible
duende of a poet whose every palabra celebrates and embraces
la vida. The Egyptians may have had Osiris, but we have Ana Castillo and her honey for Oshun.”–Tony Medina, author of
Death, With Occasional Smiling

“These are poems that will immerse you in the various rhythms of life and death–while also reminding us of the rage, joys, sorrows, desires, and
dolores of both.”–Francisco J. Galarte, author of
Brown Trans Figurations: Rethinking Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Chicanx/Latinx Studies

“Ana Castillo offers us the consolations of poetry in the face of current crises of incipient neofascism, entrenched racism, surveillance states, financial inequality, and precarity. . . I am awed by the scale, depths, stretches, bilingual inflections, and powerful ironies of her words that are more necessary than ever in our traumatized world.”–Azade Seyhan, author of
Heinrich Heine and the World Literary Map: Redressing the Canon

“Ana Castillo’s latest work,
My Book of the Dead, is a powerful testament to strength and resilience. Its historical references to the struggles our communities have endured and its addressing of political perils and climate crises are lessons needed for this time.”–Nancy Mercado, author of
It Concerns the Madness

About the Author

Ana Castillo is a celebrated author of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama. Among her award-winning books are
So Far from God: A Novel;
The Mixquiahuala Letters;
Black Dove: Mamá, Mi’jo, and Me;
The Guardians: A Novel;
Peel My Love Like an Onion: A Novel;
Sapogonia; and
Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma (UNM Press). Born and raised in Chicago, Castillo resides in southern New Mexico.