«Un poema rápido en vez de un himno es un “poema infinito” que germina este domingo de Ramos para retozar el idioma de los siglos y poder enriquecernos con la lectura de estos ingeniosos poemas en los líquenes de las vivencias. El énfasis en lo ligero y lo sencillo en este poemario es lo que nos permite abrir espacios en nuestro entorno para mirar con nuestros ojos lo que consideremos digno de percibir».
Ivonne Gordon
University of Redland
«Zagajewski pensaba que habitamos el mundo y transcurrimos en la planicie de la prosa y que sólo en algunos momentos conocemos alguna cima, algún momento de poesía. Una leve exageración. Esto es justamente lo que nos ofrecen Paden y Correa-Díaz en este libro, una leve exageración».
Alí Calderón
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
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Poetry might be that iguana that runs over the rooftops of a dead-end street, devouring juicy mangos while the neighbors want to trap it and serve it up at dinnertime. Without a doubt Jeremy Paden has found a dwelling place. Good poets have that ability to make and remake worlds, to take us to other dimensions with a surprising naturalness. “must we always fight / to own by merit / the madness that is ours?” Paden asks us. And it is precisely this madness that he embodies in a revealing bestiary where lizards, iguanas, hares, rhinoceroses, etc. reside with other characters in a unique synchrony. Paden is the angel of abandoned houses or the one that sifts through language to find the bones of Dürer or Nero. Where will Paden take us in his raft? Like a strange Charon that lights an eternal bonfire with the ashes of God. This book offers a wonderful trip, one where we dive in and come away, as Rojas wrote, with just a kiss of foam, or, to recall the ineffable Simic, one where we hear the laughter canned at the scene of our own crucifixion. Congratulations on this unsettling self-portrait whose first sketches, as Zurita would say, already belong to the ocean of speech.
Mario Meléndez Muñoz
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Este libro es la versión en español del poemario ruina montium. Ha sido traducido por el autor. Es una meditación lírica sobre el derrumbe de la mina de San José en Copiapó, Chile, en 2010.
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El poeta Fernando Valverde ha dicho que queda entre "la mejor poesía testimonial del momento."
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El poeta Carlos Alcorta ha escrito, "Jeremy Paden ha escrito un libro de poemas sobrio y doliente, pero no se ha dejado intimidar por la dura experiencia narrada, se ha impuesto a la realidad con unos versos elípticos, pero que, lejos de sacrificar su belleza por la forma, indagan en las fases de la tragedia desde su propio origen. El tono grandioso queda para las grandes epopeyas militares. Lo íntimo no necesita héroes pero es lo que construye realmente la historia porque se adapta mejor a la conversación con los fantasmas propios."
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Valparaíso Ediciones is a Spanish publishing house out of Granada, Spain. It has distribution houses in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Central America, and the US.
Bilingual Edition (English and Spanish)
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Haunting, beautiful watercolors and pen and ink drawings highlight the proud traditions of the Central American Nahuas. This emotional narrative beseeches everyone, everywhere, to understand why some things are worth dying for.
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–Foreword Reviews
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Spoken by a mother to her small daughter as they are detained at a border wall, Under the Ocelot Sun is a powerful account of refugees’ plight. The mother speaks of the beauty of their Honduran homeland and of her abuela’s wisdom. She also touches on the violent forces they are fleeing. She wants her little one to know her heritage and why they have taken this perilous journey. Lyrically told (in English and Spanish) and vibrantly illustrated, this is a picture book for our time.
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-George Ella Lyon
Kentucky Poet Laureate 2015–2016
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Co-Winner of the 2020 Campoy-Ada Prize for Illustrated Children's Book with Special Cultural Content
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A portion of the net proceeds from the sale of Under the Ocelot Sun will go to support the work of El Futuro of North Carolina, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit outpatient clinic that provides comprehensive mental health services for Latino families in a bilingual environment of healing and hope.