Keynote
The breathtaking debut collection from one of America’s most inventive new poets
Book Title
Catrachos
Subtitle
Poems
Cover Image
- Finalist for the 2021 Kate Tufts Discovery Award
Finalist for the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Poetry
Poem Excerpt
After they locate and excavate your wing-fossils,
perseverance might be the trait you’re known for.
How swiftly you sloped downwards to pick up
the carcasses floating just above the bloodstained
surface of your old neighborhood. In the laboratory,
the paleontologists will use radiometric dating
to zoom into what bequeathed you that agency to fly.
This one might have outlasted all the others,
they’ll say. Might have even seen each one disappear
behind a bolt of fire blasted from who knows where.
—from “Queerodactyl”
perseverance might be the trait you’re known for.
How swiftly you sloped downwards to pick up
the carcasses floating just above the bloodstained
surface of your old neighborhood. In the laboratory,
the paleontologists will use radiometric dating
to zoom into what bequeathed you that agency to fly.
This one might have outlasted all the others,
they’ll say. Might have even seen each one disappear
behind a bolt of fire blasted from who knows where.
—from “Queerodactyl”
Body
A name for the people of Honduras, Catrachos is a term of solidarity and resilience. In these unflinching, riveting poems, Roy G. Guzmán reaches across borders—between life and death and between countries—invoking the voices of the lost. Part immigration narrative, part elegy, and part queer coming-of-age story, Catrachos finds its own religion in fantastic figures such as the X-Men, pop singers, and the “Queerodactyl,” which is imagined in a series of poems as a dinosaur sashaying in the shadow of an oncoming comet, insistent on surviving extinction. With exceptional energy, humor, and inventiveness, Guzmán’s debut is a devastating display of lyrical and moral complexity—an introduction to an immediately captivating, urgently needed voice.
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About the Author
Credit: Kai Coggin
Praise
- “Poems of resilience, invention, and queerness call on pop culture, immigrant stories, and an imagined dinosaur called the ‘Queerodactyl’ for a work of humor and heart.”—Minnesota Monthly
- "Who more than queer people—especially queer people of color—know what it’s like to dance in the face of danger, to sashay away in the face of extinction, to love in the face of stolen liberties? . . . The emergence of a powerful new force."—O, The Oprah Magazine
- “Marked by poems that are lyrical and syntactically daring. . . . [Catratchos] nods to the perseverance of excavating a queer self and giving it flight.”—Library Journal
- "[Catrachos] is a courageous polemic against a growing moral bankruptcy in America, as well as a tender personal story delivered with effortless lyricism."—Publishers Weekly
