"a powerful gathering of poems illuminates these pages"

Another highlight of The Sea / El mar is the strong selection of poems from each author’s body of work, including a representation of some of the best prose poetry today. Capildeo’s “Investigation of Past Shoes / Investigación de zapatos del pasado” (90–95), for example, demonstrates the versatility of this poetic style, evoking gentle humor, reverie, and personal and family history through depictions of a series of shoes. And readers will enjoy the dexterity in pushing the boundaries of language they encounter in poems like Ramlochan’s “Vivek Chooses His Husbands / Vivek escoge sus maridos” (292–94), where queer love and desire defy homophobia partly through religious references, and in the exploration of language in discourse formation that features in poems like Tiphanie Yanique’s “Dictionary / Diccionario” (364–67), which dissects the word wife. The combination of fierce tenderness and strength of this anthology is further captured in its stunning cover featuring the painting Fuerza y maña (Strength and dexterity) by Puerto Rican visual artist Damaris Cruz. What a gift of an anthology! ¡Un auténtico regalo! This is definitely a book to gift to yourself and others.