When My Brother Was an Aztec
Published on 16. August 2022
96 pages
978-0-571-36887-7 (ISBN)
Description
FROM THE WINNER OF THE 2021 PULITZER PRIZE IN POETRY
When My Brother Was an Aztec is a work of courage and invention - one that foregrounds the particularities of family dynamics and individual passion against the backdrop of Western mythologies and a deeply rooted cultural history. Natalie Diaz's arresting debut explores a brother's addiction and its devastating effects on a household, while offering a political critique of our nations and their pasts. It acknowledges absences and uncomfortable silences, as well as conjuring vivid voices and presences, from Antigone and Houdini to Huitzilopochtli and Jesus.
Stolen cowboy boots, violins on fire; a mariachi band playing in the bathroom, a black bayonet carried between the shoulder blades; the beauty of busted fruit, the sight of hellish visions - Diaz both revels and reveals through her distinctive use of language and imagery, bringing to life every intimate and communal encounter, blooming abundance from scarcity. The result is a wrenching portrayal of sacrifice, want, despair and fortitude that feels truly transformative.
When My Brother Was an Aztec is a work of courage and invention - one that foregrounds the particularities of family dynamics and individual passion against the backdrop of Western mythologies and a deeply rooted cultural history. Natalie Diaz's arresting debut explores a brother's addiction and its devastating effects on a household, while offering a political critique of our nations and their pasts. It acknowledges absences and uncomfortable silences, as well as conjuring vivid voices and presences, from Antigone and Houdini to Huitzilopochtli and Jesus.
Stolen cowboy boots, violins on fire; a mariachi band playing in the bathroom, a black bayonet carried between the shoulder blades; the beauty of busted fruit, the sight of hellish visions - Diaz both revels and reveals through her distinctive use of language and imagery, bringing to life every intimate and communal encounter, blooming abundance from scarcity. The result is a wrenching portrayal of sacrifice, want, despair and fortitude that feels truly transformative.
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
File size
0,64 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-571-36887-7 (9780571368877)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Person
Natalie Diaz was born and raised in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, on the banks of the Colorado River. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her first poetry collection, When My Brother Was an Aztec, won an American Book Award. Her second, Postcolonial Love Poem, won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the T. S. Eliot Prize and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow, as well as a Lannan Literary Fellow and a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Artist Fellow. She was awarded the Holmes National Poetry Prize and a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the United States Artists, where she is an alumna of the Ford Fellowship. Diaz is the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University.
Content
- Intro
- Landing Page
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- When My Brother Was an Aztec
- I
- Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation
- Hand-Me-Down Halloween
- Why I Hate Raisins
- The Red Blues
- The Gospel of Guy No-Horse
- A Woman with No Legs
- Tortilla Smoke: A Genesis
- Reservation Mary
- Cloud Watching
- Mercy Songs to Melancholy
- If Eve Side-Stealer & Mary Busted-Chest Ruled the World
- The Last Mojave Indian Barbie
- Reservation Grass
- Other Small Thundering
- Jimmy Eagle's Hot Cowboy Boots Blues
- The Facts of Art
- Prayers or Oubliettes
- The Clouds Are Buffalo Limping toward Jesus
- II
- My Brother at 3 a.m.
- Zoology
- How to Go to Dinner with a Brother on Drugs
- Downhill Triolets
- As a Consequence of My Brother Stealing All the Lightbulbs
- Formication
- Mariposa Nocturna
- Black Magic Brother
- A Brother Named Gethsemane
- Soirée Fantastique
- No More Cake Here
- III
- I Watch Her Eat the Apple
- Toward the Amaranth Gates of War or Love
- Self-Portrait as a Chimera
- Dome Riddle
- I Lean Out the Window and She Nods Off in Bed, the Needle Gently Rocking on the Bedside Table
- Monday Aubade
- When the Beloved Asks, 'What Would You Do if You Woke Up and I Was a Shark?'
- Lorca's Red Dresses
- Of Course She Looked Back
- Orange Alert
- The Elephants
- Why I Don't Mention Flowers When Conversations with My Brother Reach Uncomfortable Silences
- The Beauty of a Busted Fruit
- Love Potion 2012
- A Wild Life Zoo
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- By the Same Author
- Copyright
