Tula : poems / Chris Santiago.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Santiago, Chris, author.

Standardized Title:

Poems. Selections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--21st century.

American poetry.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

102 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis, Minnesota : Milkweed Editions, 2016.

Summary:

"Tula: a ruined Toltec capital; a Russian city known for its accordions; Tagalog for "poem." Prismatic, startling, rich with meaning yet sparely composed, Chris Santiago's debut collection of poems begins with one word and transforms it, in a dazzling sleight of hand, into a multivalent symbol for the immigrant experience. Tula: Santiago reveals to readers a distant land devastated by war. Tula: its music beckons in rhythms, time signatures, and lullabies. Tula: can the poem, he seems to ask, build an imaginative bridge back to a family lost to geography, history, and a forgotten language? Inspired by the experiences of the "blood stranger"-the second-generation immigrant who does not fully acquire the language of his parents-Tula paints the portrait of a mythic homeland that is part ghostly underworld, part unknowable paradise. Language splinters. Impossible islands form an archipelago across its landscape. A mother sings lullabies and a father works the graveyard shift in St. Paul-while in the Philippines, two dissident uncles and a grandfather send messages and telegrams from the afterlife. Deeply ambitious, a collection that examines the shortcomings and possibilities of both language and poetry themselves, Tula announces the arrival of a major new literary talent"-- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781571314888

1571314881

OCLC:

957056848