Arsonist

"Winner of the 2017 Anhinga Robert Dana Prize, selected by Eduardo C. Corral, 'Arsonist' is a shape-shifter of a book, a book that leaves the reader with an existential 'shivering', yet, it is on fire. Loaded with lethal chemicals, like, let us say, desire, abandonment, separation and industrialized lives without homelands, burning in their brutal severance, Arsonist is a spilling and boiling caldron of zig-zag figures, of wild colors split from their root, 'a son's desperate attempt to / clear the air' -- of things that long to congeal, yet, they smash into blanks, smoke and the questions of forgiveness and birth. Here, a relentless, piercing clarity, a precious text without trappings, an examination of loss and love. I salute Zihuatanejo for this blistering beauty among the ashes." --Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States 2015-2017

Joaquin Zihuatanejo received his MFA in creative writing with a concentration in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Yellow Medicine Review, Sonora Review, Southwestern American Literature, and Huizache among other journals and anthologies. His poetry has been featured on HBO, NBC, and on NPR in Historias and The National Teacher's Initiative. Joaquin has two passions in his life, his wife Aida and poetry, always in that order.