Overview

Topography of a border/line bird is a dream lost in the smoke of the destruction of the selves and reconstructed with raw tenderness. Its playful, multi-genre form mimics a mind splintered by trauma. With brutal honesty, the speaker of these poems tells the story of leaving her homeland with her fiercely independent, educated, and mother, while searching for her own identity. The collection creates a shadowed, electric world where people transform after crossing the physical and psychological threshold of the Mexico/U.S. border. Each poem, micro essay, cyanotype, collage, erasure is a small revelation. Topography of a border/line bird masters the art of putting oneself together after being torn open by familial abuse, a government intent on negating one's existence, grief and mental illness.

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9781957840437

Table of Contents

Reviews

Juania Sueños offers us multimedia poetry that cries from the depths of the soul. This book is what Gloria Anzaldúa names ""autohistoria,"" a genre of art in which the artist simultaneously narrates her own story and the story of the collective. Sueños's art is rooted in compassion for the psychic pain in her everyday life as well as the historical pain that she has inherited. -Sara A. Ramírez Sueños's fragmented prose glitters across her debut collection, detailing memories of her and her family's complicated experiences in the U.S. Her poems are donned in black velvet, whispering truths and obsessions to an altar of Mexican ancestors. Sueños constellates familial love and trauma, past relationships, queer precolonial history, and the realities that haunt and harm immigrants in Texas. -Cloud Delfina Cardona Topography of a border/line bird is impossible to eject from your skull once Juania's words take hold. Lines like ""I fill up the bathtub & make sure to add enough bubbles / so I don't have to see my body"" underscore how difficult self-love can be-but these lines also make an argument for the importance of decoding ourselves. These pages often present someone as ""difficult"" to love, but every poem, micro-essay, and collage in this book are generous entries, inviting readers to sit down with a true artist.-Amber Isaac These poems sing, offering small narrative treasures that rumble through Juania's throat. Capable of surprise and desire and longing and justice too. Traveling through these pages, they embrace and craft beauty in a time and space when it's most needed.-jo reyes-boitel Topography of a border/line bird confronts generational curses, colonialism, state violencia, and all of their manifestations. Sueños breaks through the limitations of language, of poetry, through a blue galaxy of erasures, cyanotypes, and un/docupoetics. Sueños' debut collection is a brilliant, insightful addition to the queer MexicanTexan canon.-SG Huerta Tender, inventive, and brilliant-Juania Sueños' poems are punk rock. These poems are charged with grief for family and history and dare readers to reflect on hard truths. ""before I remember / I must work / from memory,"" she writes, and carries poems that reflect on what's precious about home. These poems love and lament the restless nature of life with extreme abandon. Shatter your heart with this debut!-Sebastian Páramo In topography of a border/line bird, Juania Sueños traces dreamlike cartography of a life formed by migration, queerness, survival, and ancestral summoning. These poems challenge lineage, expose the harsh immigration policies, face matriarchs, and grief through enticing forms, tender-yet aching language that sings through pages. Sueños reclaims her place in the archive-not through permission, but through fire, prayer, and poetry.-Saúl Hernández

Author Information

Juania migrated to North Tejas from Zacatecas as she neared adolescence. She has spent the majority of her adulthood advocating for undocumented people, whether through organizing, writing, or simply resisting being crushed by the towering pillars of imperialism. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Texas State University. She's a co-founder and Executive Director at Infrarrealista Review, where she connects with other marginalized Tejanx poets and creatives

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