Empire

Using both lyrical and narrative forms, these concise verses explore a family history set against the larger backdrop of Mexican history, immigration, and landscapes of the Southwest. The poet’s delicate touch lends these poems an organic quality that allows her to address both the personal and the political with equal grace. Straightforward without being simplistic or reductive, these poems manage to be intimate without seeming self-important.

This distinctive collection ranges from the frighteningly whimsical image of Cortes dancing gleefully around a cannon to the haunting and poignant discovery of a dead refugee boy seemingly buried within the poet herself. The blending of styles works to blur the lines between subjects, creating a textured narrative full of both imagination and nuance.

Ultimately, Empire situates individual experience in the wider social context, highlighting the power of poetry as song, performance, testimony, and witness. Addressing themes such as war, family, poverty, gender, race, and migration, Candelaria gives us a dialogue between historical and personal narratives, as well as discreet ?conversations” between content and form.

Xochiquetzal Candelaria has had her work published in The Nation, The New England Review, Gulf Coast, The Seneca Review, and other magazines and journals. She holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and New York University and has received multiple fellowships, including those from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches at San Francisco City College.