Publisher's Synopsis
Published by Floricanto and Berkeley Presses, Everything We Think We Hear is a collection of prose poems and flash fictions in the tradition of the Latin American microcuento. At turns fabulistic and true to life, these short pieces tell stories about growing up in and out of South Texas and about the role family mythology has in relating to the world. Through experiences articulated via poetic prose, this collection presents Latin@ storytelling as a way to understand the universal through the personal. What is the meaning beyond memory's hauntings? How does one survive the multi-faceted self fashioned from such meanings? Poet José Ángel Araguz' unflinching collection, Everything We Think We Hear, considers these questions from all angles and gives us answers as adamantine and brilliant as the prose poems he has fashioned in his questing. Sarah Cortéz, Councilor, Texas Institute of Letters, Author of Cold Blue Steel. José Ángel Araguz balances the beauty and agony of a man siphoning love from beer bottles, sparse mother-son conversations, a stern Tía's throw, and the weathered memories of an absent father. This collection, where a boy who couldn't dream becomes a man "making communion with all he knows," insists you gaze on lo raro, the sour-pickled and scattered parts of a soul who refuses to ignore the song of the broken even when surrounded by splendor. Peggy Robles-Alvarado, author of Homenaje a las guerreras. In José Angel Araguz's collection, Everything We Think We Hear, todo se vale, everything goes! This book plays with our senses and forces us to consider what we think we hear, what we think we are reading. A fierce voice that shouts often and whispers now and then the many truths of life in South Texas. The poetic prose pieces startle the senses with rich images that linger in the mind like memorable dreams. Read these pieces and come away transformed. Norma E. Cantú, author of Canícula Born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, José Angel Araguz is a CantoMundo fellow. Winner of Rhino Poetry's 2015 Editor's Prize, he has had poems recently in Prairie Schooner, Borderlands, and The Laurel Review. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Cincinnati. Author of four chapbooks, most recently Reasons (not) to Dance, he runs the poetry blog The Friday Influence.
