Boat People

Boat People by Santos-Febres, Mayra. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781945720192.

Poetry. African & African American Studies. Latinx Studies. Translated by Vanessa Pérez-Rosario. "Mayra Santos-Febres is one of our most powerful writers; and BOAT PEOPLE has long been a part of the poetic counter-tradition that shaped generations of Puerto Rican poets. Thanks to Vanessa Pérez-Rosario; English-language readers are now plunged into the depths of a text that; to echo Patrick Chamoiseau; is composed of that strange conference of poets and great beings; lost at sea; tossed on shores; or caught in a world without return address or safe passage. Written like a border drawn on water; this oceanic book is both a source of life and a record of death. It remains as devastatingly urgent as the day it was written."--Raquel Salas Rivera "The ocean in BOAT PEOPLE is haunted and the book is the heartbreaking journey from sea to horizon. Melancholy and songlike; Santos-Febres documents the nameless; the chum: bodies set adrift by commerce. Like M. NourBese Philipss Zong!; this phenomenal translation in which I become a drop of fish sweat; my body dancing to the poetrys music but also lamenting the violences that underlie it."--Carmen Giménez Smith