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August 27 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
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In-Person: An Afternoon with Victoria María Castells
Books & Books presents…
AN AFTERNOON WITH VICTORIA MARÍA CASTELLS
discussing
The Rivers Are Inside Our Homes
(University of Notre Dame Press, $18.00)
Sunday, August 27th, 4:00 PM | Books & Books, Coral Gables
RSVP HERE FOR FREE
Books & Books is excited to host an evening with Victoria María Castells, celebrating her book The Rivers Are Inside Our Homes, winner of the Notre Dame Review Book Prize!
(University of Notre Dame Press, $18.00).
This event is FREE and open to the public and books will be available for purchase the night of the event so make sure to stay after the talk for a book signing! Please RSVP only if you intend to join us.
About the Book:
WINNER of the Notre Dame Review Book Prize!
“This debut collection by a Cuban American poet from Miami centers on questions of exile, immigration and memory, evoking Cuba as ‘this pearl/erupted from Earth, island/of dew and Communist tide’.” – New York Times
The Rivers Are Inside Our Homes handles themes of loss and exile, aging generations, fable and fairy tale, marriage and hurt, with the island of Cuba at its heart.
These incandescent poems by Cuban American poet Victoria Mar a Castells explore how we can salvage our notion of paradise in an overspent Eden. In thwarted homes located in Havana and Miami, Rapunzel and her prince, persecuted nymphs, Morgause, and Bluebeard’s wife speak to us directly, all in need of returning to safety. Confronting machismo, illness, heartbreak, and isolation, the poems depict how women are at the mercy of men, either husband or oligarch. Yet all generations of Cubans are bombarded with this need to return or to leave, to have both, to have neither.
Meanwhile, hurricane seasons add further instability to shelter and family, growing fiercer every year. Exile and displacement are accepted as permanent conditions. Latin America will mirror Cuba’s violent struggles as conquered land and despotic object. From the colonial desecrations to fraught revolutionary aftermath, the search for home is lyrically charted by this contradictory land of suffering and dreams. Through these poems, dictators, grandmothers, mythical characters, and buccaneers are given voices of equal strength, challenging what constitutes truth under a prism of fantasy and desire.
BUY THE BOOK HERE
About the Author:
Victoria María Castells is a creative writing teacher in Miami, Florida. Her poems have appeared in Reservoir, The Journal, Quarter After Eight, Notre Dame Review, and other literary journals.