On love poems
with José Olivarez author of 'Promises of Gold'
#NuevasPaginasconLupita is a space that is both an archive and resource aimed to "spotlight" Hispanic/Latinx/e authors with newly published books. The goal is to connect readers to new and/or old favorite Hispanic/Latinx/e authors and their books! So give this & every post a share to help us reach more readers!
How does it work?!
Here’s the deal, I came up with a set of casual/random/funny questions to ask each Hispanic/Latinx/e author, I interview. For now, the questions will all be the same but maybe in the future I’ll launch this into more specific questions to the author or maybe I’ll turn this series into a mini-podcast, or maybe……well, you get it! The possibilities are endless.
If you are new here don’t forget to check out all the other amazing interviews! We also have a great line-up of guest authors coming up so make sure you don’t miss an issue by subscribing now!
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Hey Heyyy Book Franz!
Happy Love Day (if you celebrate)! <3 Love day is one of my Mamá’s favorite days. As a kid, I’d come home to chocolates and other Valentine’s Day treats. One year she gifted me a teddy bear that had a beating heart you turn on and off. Readers, I still have that teddy bear even if I lost the beating heart years ago.
The point is she always made this day about celebrating all forms of love, not just romantic love. So I wanted to send you all love and let you know how much I appreciate, and value and see the outpour of love you all give me through comments and notes that let me know you read a book because I mentioned it. Thank you for seeing me, for indulging and enjoying all the bookish things I write about and share. If I could send each one of you flowers - I would.
I did make you all some fun literary v-day cards to share with your favorite book lovers and I have a special giveaway for today’s book! All you have to do is comment below that you are interested in a copy of today’s featured book/author and you’ll receive a bonus entry if you share today’s issue with a friend and or on social media somewhere. Once you’ve shared it somewhere - comment again below and let me know, so you can be entered to win twice. I’ll announce the winners in next week’s issue!
Today’s author spotlight is exciting to me because the book is available in English and Spanish at the same time, in the same sitting. That’s important to me because now that my Mamá is reading more (shout out to audiobooks and the Latine authors that write stories she connects with), I see the need for more books written by our Latine authors in English to also be available as soon as possible in Spanish as well. Often it takes months (if at all) for books to be translated and maybe this is a selfish reason but how can my Mamá book club with her friends if the books she wants them to read aren’t available in Spanish? Speaking of book clubs……
For #LupitasBookClub Besties:
We are still on for our February 18th book discussion! ICYMI we are reading WHEN WE WERE SISTERS by Fatimah Asghar. I tried to be cute and stick to making weekly read-along update videos but I finished the book in two sittings, and I made one single TikTok video about it (insert sad emoji). I couldn’t put it down and it was so easy to read through - so if you haven’t gotten a copy, there is still plenty of time for you to join us. I personally think the book speaks to the impact childhood trauma can have on sibling bonds in adulthood and so much more but we will get into it!
Without further ado, our very special guest author for today’s Nuevas Pagina issue is……José Olivarez author of Promises of Gold!
Could you tell me a bit about where this photo was taken? Is it special to your book in some way?
This photo was taken by my wife. It was taken by our bookshelf. Our bookshelf is special to my book because reading is a major part of my creative process. Before I published a book, I would go into bookstores and daydream about where my future books might be located on those glorious shelves. It’s kind of wild to me that those dreams are coming true.
Tell me about your book without telling me about your book - share any literary inspirations behind your book! If there are none, the gap you wanted to fill in the literary canon with your book.
I love reading love poems. Off the top of my head two of my favorites are “I Watch Her Eat the Apple” by Natalie Diaz & “Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem” by Matthew Olzmann. Love poems are hard! I’ve tried and failed to write love poems a billion times. That makes them even more mystical to me. I keep trying and trying. My inspiration is twofold: I wanted to write a book of love poems because I enjoy them and because they are challenging. I also wanted to write about love in all the ways it manifests. I’ve been blessed with a lot of incredible friends and family, so I wanted to write about those loves. Especially because in our culture romantic love is given more gravity than any platonic love. Well, as I was writing Promises of Gold the world was changed by a global pandemic. At that point, I had a choice. I could ignore the news and continue writing love poems in a vacuum, or I could bring the world and all its chaos into the love poems.
What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?
There are a lot of poems in Promises of Gold about my family. I wanted to write about my mom and dad not just as my parents but considering them wholly as people with ambitions and interests outside of me & my brothers. Those poems are special to me, and I’m proud of them.
Another theme I want to highlight is the theme of class. I grew up in a working-class household. My dad was a steelworker. My mom worked as a custodian. My parents were undocumented for the first decade of my life. It’s important to me to bring that class perspective in because I don’t see it discussed in literature much. And just like being Mexican and the descendant of migrant people has hugely informed my perspective, so has growing up poor. I’m always anxious about money, and I don’t read enough books that mention money and the way poverty warps our senses & sensibilities.
If a book was home, where would your home be?
If Promises of Gold was a house it would be in Chicago—let’s say 4th of July weekend—in a house big enough to house all the homies. There’d be a card table and a DJ. My dad would be on the grill. My mom would be showing off her garden to everybody who stopped by. My homie, Mercedes, would be taking photographs. My wife, Erika, would be cracking jokes and offering hot takes on the latest Twitter controversies. Something like that.
If your book was a famous musician who would it be?
If Promises of Gold was a musician, it would be T-Pain. Why? Because T-Pain makes music that makes people dance. It’s catchy. It feels good. It’s got some humor to it. “She made us drinks to drink/ we drunk them/ got drunk”—that’s a real lyric. I love it. Likewise, I pride myself on writing with a complicated simplicity. I think my poems are deep. I think there’s a lot of intricacies to them. But if you’re reading quickly, you can read my poems and pick something up to like immediately. And like T-Pain, I’m trying to move people.
What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?
Here’s what I want you to do. Grab a chela if you drink. If you don’t drink get yourself an agua de jamaica. If you’re in New Jersey, where I’m at, order a quesadilla Mexicana de carnitas from My Mexico. Make sure you get some guacamole and chips. If you’re in Chicago, congratulations. Go get yourself some tacos from Atotonilco. My favorite are the tacos de al pastor. But do you. Everything there is delicious.
In what ways has access (or little to no access) to Hispanic/Latinx/e literature defined you as a writer?
I didn’t read Latinx writers until I was in high school. It was revelatory. The first Latinx writers I remember reading were Sandra Cisneros and Willie Perdomo. I was like okay, bet. I’m a part of a long and storied tradition. I don’t need to imitate Shakespeare or Emily Dickinson. (They’re great! I have no beef with them!) I have a different lineage of writers I can look to and engage with. In those early days, it was probably too liberating, lol. I was like I’m going to put tamales into all my poems, haha. I was learning about perspective. I was learning to write from my desk in the room I shared with my younger brother in the house that would later be foreclosed after the recession of 2008. I didn’t need to look away from my life. I could look in and in.
Where can readers keep up with your work?
@_joseolivarez on IG & twitter and my website is joseolivarez.com
Thank you to José for taking the time to chat with me about his book! Please please make sure you purchase a copy (or request your local library carry a copy) #SupportLatinxLit!
JOSÉ OLIVAREZ is the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by the Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he coedited the poetry anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext. He cohosts the poetry podcast The Poetry Gods.
Synopsis for Promises of Gold from the Bookshop website:
A groundbreaking collection of poems addressing how every kind of love--self, brotherly, romantic, familial, cultural--is birthed, shaped, and complicated by the invisible forces of gender, capitalism, religion, migration, and so on.
Love is at the heart of everything we do, and yet it is often mishandled, misrepresented, or narrowly defined. In the words of José Olivarez: "How many bad lovers have gotten poems? How many crushes? No disrespect to romantic love--but what about our friends? Those homies who show up when the romance ends to help you heal your heart. Those homies who are there all along--cheering for us and reminding us that love is abundant."
Written in English and combined with a Spanish translation by poet David Ruano, "Promises of Gold explores many forms of love and how "a promise made isn't always a promise kept," as Olivarez grapples with the contradictions of the American Dream laying bare the ways in which "love is complicated by forces larger than our hearts."
He writes, "For those of us who are hyphenated Americans, where do we belong?Promises of Gold attempts to reckon with colonial legacy and the reality of what those promises have borne out for Mexican descendants. I wrote this book to imagine and document an ongoing practice of healing--healing that requires me to show up for myself, my community, my friends, my family, and my loves every day."
Whether readers enter this collection in English or Spanish, these extraordinary poems are sure to become beloved for their illuminations of life--and love.
I’d love a copy of the book! What a great interview. I’m intrigued that it’s Latine poetry about real life, a genre I look forward to reading. So special that he acknowledges love of nuestros “homies” not only romantic love! Also loved his restaurant suggestions, and Chicago is one of my fave cities.
I somehow did not realize this is a collection of love poems! This was a great interview and I'd love to win a copy 💘