
Loteria
Poems
Esteban Rodriguez(Author)
Texas Review Press
Will be published approx. on 3. January 2024
Other
Cards
54 pages
978-1-68003-382-3 (ISBN)
Description
A traditional game of chance popular in Mexico and in Mexican American culture, LoterIa is poetically rendered in Esteban RodrIguez's eighth collection, with each poem revolving around one of the fifty-four cards. Using the image presented as a catalyst for exploration and self-reflection, RodrIguez unveils the familial journey between two countries and cultures through both a surreal and narrative lens. Here, a mother unearths a severed hand in the desert. A father discovers his heart among a heap of discarded items. And at one point, the speaker-toggling between his role as witness and son-finds himself in a canoe on a river contemplating the meaning behind an authentic experience. Lyrical, insightful, and honestly engaging, LoterIa sheds light on a world that doesn't so easily reveal itself, adding to RodrIguez's prolific and important oeuvre. This Special Edition is in the form of a deck of la loterIa playing cards. Each card features one of the 54 la loterIa images on one side, and the corresponding poem by Esteban RodrIguez on the other. Art by Alyssa Garcia.
The Sabine Series in Literature
The Sabine Series in Literature
Reviews / Votes
"In LoterIa-which draws its form from the Mexican game of chance yet manages to convey a sense of inevitability with every line-Esteban RodrIguez presents intimate and compassionate portraits of family members. Among the most vivid are those of his father, whose crossing of the desert is imagined in kaleidoscopic, multivalent sequences both harrowing and hallucinatory, and his mother, whose high spirits and physical sufferings are vividly reconstructed and turned for moving insights. Deeply companionable, offered in a voice that is simultaneously energetic and guided by confident restraint, these poems are full of love and clarity, an uncommon and welcome combination."-John Hennessy, author of Coney Island Pilgrims"Esteban RodrIguez's LoterIa is the story of the crossing. The hunger, violence, struggle, and death experienced by those who take on this dangerous venture is itself one kind of lottery, some make it and some don't. There is fortune and luck being sought and some is imposed, but either way, these poems show us the vulnerability and humility of a family who has crossed the board in search of the loterIa, not the game, but the promise."-Richard Boada, author of We Find Each Other in the Darkness
"This special edition release of Esteban Rodriguez's LoterIa will be his book of poetry, originally released in 2023, republished as a deck of 54 cards. If this isn't an amazing remix of the classic game and of the book as a form that I've been waiting for, then I don't know what is."-Reyes Ramirez in Letras Latinas Blog
"Between. Not here, not there. Not this, or that. Somewhere but not someplace. Not easy to put your, wrap your, place your-but confidence, and masterful touch with language, is what makes Esteban RodrIguez a credible, incredible even, witness to the between bisecting the Mexican and American experience."-Foreword Reviews
"Written in single-stanza vertical oblongs, the poems evoke portraits, which seems fitting, since many of them sketch an individual in thumbnail narratives. . . . But the poems make sense as a deck of cards, too, as sets of symbols shuffled across the pages. The stories span from past to future and float free of a linear narrative."-Sylee Gore in Poetry Foundation's Harriet Books
"a collection that speaks to the migrant universal and the challenge of overcoming the unknown"-Full House Literary
"[In LoterIa] the poet memorializes his father's hard labor, alluding to the Atlas myth and describing his versatile work boots. The familial struggle for survival has buoyancy in RodrIguez's telling."-Rebecca Foster in Shelf Awareness
More details
Series
Edition
Special edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Huntsville
United States
Edition type
Special edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
54 color image: Deck of 54 la loteria playing cards. Each card has full color individual la loteria art on one side and corresponding poem on the other
Dimensions
Height: 92 mm
Width: 66 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
100 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68003-382-3 (9781680033823)
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
Persons
Esteban Rodriguez is the author of five poetry collections, most recently The Valley (Sundress Publications 2021), and the essay collection Before the Earth Devours Us (Split/Lip Press 2021). He is the Interviews Editor for the EcoTheo Review, Senior Book Reviews Editor for Tupelo Quarterly, and Associate Poetry Editor for AGNI. He currently lives in central Texas.