A bold and tender portrait of family, identity, and truth in the North Bronx.

Through narrative poems and innovative forms inspired by color theory and elementary school, Orange explores the ripple effects of queerness, lies, and finding yourself in a family. In this visceral new collection, however, the scope of "family" expands well beyond the nuclear unit; Noel Quinones's poems center relationships between friends, cousins, partners, and many other family members. Painting a vivid and fraught portrait of the North Bronx, Quinones unflinchingly confronts the contradictions at the heart of love, divorce, gender, religion, and community, unpacking the complexities of coming out, divorced parents, and generational trauma. Orange ultimately argues that truth resembles color: something real, yet elusive, and impossible to prove.


About the Author
Noel Quinones is an Emmy award-winning Nuyorican writer, educator, and speaker from the Bronx. Their work has been published in POETRY, the Boston Review, Poem-a-Day, and Michigan Quarterly Review. They have also received fellowships from Tin House, CantoMundo, Vermont Studio Center, and the Poetry Foundation. They currently live in Chicago and teach with the Chicago Poetry Center.


Reviews

ORANGE is a joyful, heart-thumping, grief-slick, language-sparkling romp through memory and becoming. Every page is humming with the music of what it means to be alive and brown and queer and brilliant in a world that too often forgets to see you whole. Structured around color theory and anchored in a bold love letter to the body's brightness, these poems navigate family ruptures, first loves, and the ache of moving towards a future full of rowdy song.

-- Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of Oceanic

These poems are patient and visceral, familial and mold-breaking. They don't expect easy answers, but instead shine light on the liminal space between guilt and innocence, individuality and community, connection and isolation. ORANGE pulses with place and honors that "no two Bronxs are the same." From the many saints of Norwood to parental monologues clawing at catharsis, this debut is both an archive and a testament. It asks anew the questions we all at some point need to face: Where do I come from? Who has it made me? And who have I made myself?

-- Jon Sands, author of It's Not Magic



Book Information
ISBN 9781960327208
Author Noel Quinones
Format Paperback
Page Count 104
Imprint CavanKerry Press
Publisher CavanKerry Press
Weight(grams) 227g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 184mm * 10mm