Description: In his landmark debut, Carlos Andrés Gómez interrogates race, gender, sexuality, and violence to explore some of the most pressing issues of our time. These poems address the complexities and nuances of toxic masculinity, assimilation, homophobia, and the joy and anguish of trying to raise Black children in America. Gómez casts an uncompromising eye toward both brutality and tenderness, going where we are most uncomfortable and lingering in moments of introspection that reveal fear, grief, or hatred. Birthed at a breaking point, these poems carve open silence, revealing fissures that welcome the light. Unflinching, poignant, and powerful, Fractures is both a gut punch and a balm.
Brief description:
Carlos Andrés Gómez is the author of the memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood. His work has been featured in numerous publications, including New England Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and BuzzFeed Reader.
Review Quotes: "Fractures teaches us the past is always inflecting the present. In poems as charged as they are exquisitely made, Gómez offers us the chance to appreciate searching for 'the exact day / [he] stopped dreaming in the language / that sings [his] name.' But its true gift, its true power, is the way it transforms loss and sadness into something triumphant."--C. Dale Young