Broken Souths: Latina/o Poetic Responses to Neoliberalism and Globalization (the University of Arizona Press, November 2013) maps the field of Latinx poetry as it emerged from late 1960s political-social movements (the Chicano, Puerto Rican, and Mexican Student movements) and expanded into new expressive forms and locations, taking shape alongside and in response to globalization and the rise of neoliberalism, the ideology of free-market fundamentalism. Broken Souths is the first book-length study of the diverse field of Latinx poetry and the first to put Latinx and Latin American poets in conversation. Broken Souths is available for purchase here and here.

“This original and innovative contribution to the growing scholarship on Latin@ poetry distinguishes especially through its opening up of exciting new directions for the study of Latin@ poetics.” -Dennis López, American Literary History review of Broken Souths, in ALH Online Review

Broken Souths is “intricately dialectical, as befits the multiply shuttling, back-and-forth perspectives of North American Latina/o poets looking at, actively promoting, collaborating, translating, and otherwise engaging with the work of their Latin American counterparts.” With an “invigorating bubbling, thick abundance of relational, critical, and informational texture,” Broken Souths “perform[s] great service in the current urgency to ‘decolonize knowledge’ and its productive institutions.” -Maria Damon, American Literature review of Broken Souths and Molly McGlennen’s Creative Alliances: The Transnational Designs of Indigenous Women’s Poetry

Read more about Broken Souths in the colloquy “Poetry After Language” on Stanford University’s ARCADE site, which was also featured at the Poetry Foundation. Organized by Walt Hunter and Marijeta Bozovic, the colloquy features contributions by Cathy Park Hong and Fred Moten, among other poets and critics.

Broken Souths keeps excellent company in Rachel Galvin’s terrific review of Angels of the Americlypse: An Anthology of New Latin@ Writing over at Boston Review. 

At the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet Blog, the brilliant poet/translator Daniel Borzutzky introduces the likewise brilliant poet/translator/scholar Lucas de Lima through the hemispheric critical lens of Broken Souths. Read Lucas de Lima’s incisive piece “Poetry Betrays Whiteness.”  

Broken Souths is “a must-read for those interested in what a critical, transamerican poetics of the Americas might look like.” -Daniel Borzutzky, author of In the Murmurs of Rotten Carcass Economy and The Performance of Becoming Human.

“Broken Souths skillfully and imaginatively bridges Latin American and U.S. Latino/a poetic contexts.” –Urayoán Noel, author of In Visible Movement and Buzzing Hemisphere/Rumor Hemisférico

Broken Souths gets the Perloff treatment in her “review” of the “State of Criticism.” Her denunciation? A mark of distinction, perhaps, or at least good company.

“Broken Souths succinctly stated is a magnificent piece of writing in terms of originality, sophistication, and scope.” -Francisco A. Lomelí, co-author of Aztlán: Essays on the Chicano Homeland and Imagined Transnationalism: U.S. Latino/a Literature, Culture, and Identity

“Far from occupying niche spaces on the margins of literary history, these books are crucial landmarks in a growing field that has yet to be institutionalized fully, but that deserves to be recognized as global aesthetic theory or critical global studies.” -Walt Hunter, College Literature review of Broken Souths and Khaled Furani’s Silencing the Sea: Secular Rhythms in Palestinian Poetry

“No other study connects Latino poetry to social, political, and economic issues with this specific focus and inclusive selection of poetry. [Broken Souths] serves as the literary complement to the treatises of Naomi Klein, Greg Grandin, and Stephen Kinzer, to name a few. Required reading for specialists in American (Latin and US) literature.” -Lauren Shaw, CHOICE Reviews

“[An] engaging theoretical approach,” “a meticulous analysis through ample and effective use of both theory and primary sources,” and “an ambitious critical undertaking that asks the right questions and guides the scholar into further research for ensuing queries into the ‘Broken Souths.’” -Nancy Bird-Soto, review in CENTRO, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies.

The poet David Lau refers to Broken Souths in introducing his interview (April 30, 2014) with Juan Felipe Herrera on the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog.

And here’s my in-depth interview about Broken Souths at Dissident Voice from February 2014.