Letisia Cruz's latest collection, Migrations & Other Exiles, many years in the making, includes poems that began as simple explorations of the poet's past and as a way of accepting the violence of her youth without fear or self-judgment. Cruz's parents immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child. A few years later, her father was murdered in the hallway of their apartment building in New Jersey. After his death, Cruz's mother remarried into a deeply abusive relationship that nearly ended her life. These poems are rooted in the violence of those years. They explore immigrant issues, exile, Latina/minority women's issues, the death of father, mother's experience with domestic violence, and the relationships of her youth.

About the Author
Letisia Cruz is a Cuban-American writer and artist. She is the author of The Lost Girls Book of Divination (Tolsun Books, 2018). Migrations & Other Exiles was awarded the 2022 Idaho Prize for Poetry. She is the recipient of a 2022 artist grant from the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance for her project Rituales: An Exploration of Faith in the Caribbean. Her writing and artwork have appeared in [PANK], Ninth Letter, The Acentos Review, Gulf Stream, Saw Palm, Third Coast, Duende, Moko Caribbean Arts & Letters, 300 Days of Sun, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Ink Brick, and Sakura Review, among others. She is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University's MFA program and lives in St. Petersburg, Florida with her partner and their cats, plants, and several hundred lizards.

Reviews
With a Bachelardian dreaminess and a poetic language that is both sensuous and incisive, Migrations and Other Exiles questions the contradictory nature of human love. Right from the opening poem, "Promise," the speaker attempts to shape an unidentified other into a graceful swan-like survivor only to renege: "I carved her neck long / so that when the rains came / she might hold it above / water. You will not drown, / I promised her. But then her / mouth and eyes filled and I / let them." What begins with hope, complex and lucent--a flight of spirit--often ends with the rarity or inability to fly: "Remember that one time / we flew? Like we were birds / with thrift-store wings." Other times, it's the literal, hard-hitting world of self-harming burns and gunshots that violate the boundaries of self. Precise and elegant, redemptive in its musicality and stunning imagery, Migrations and Other Exiles is a remarkable, stand-out, collection." - Dzvinia Orlowsky



Book Information
ISBN 9798986571546
Author Letisia Cruz
Format Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Lost Horse Press
Publisher Lost Horse Press
Weight(grams) 100g
Dimensions(mm) 212mm * 134mm * 6mm