Algarabía
The Song of Cenex, Natural Son of the Isle Alarabíyya / La canción de Cenex, hijo natural de la Ínsula Alarabíyya
$42.41
- Paperback
448 pages
- Release Date
16 December 2025
Summary
A Puerto Rican trans epic that blends poetic play and speculative fiction, by a Lambda Literary Award winner.
Algarabía follows Cenex, a trans being who narrates his life while navigating the stories told on his behalf. An inhabitant of a colony of Earth in a parallel universe, Cenex leads us through his years as an experimental subject, a stay in suburbia, and not-so-far-off lands as he struggles to find a name, a body, and a stable home. His song clashes variegated sources …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781644453513 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1644453517 |
| Author: | Roque Raquel Salas Rivera |
| Publisher: | Graywolf Press,U.S. |
| Imprint: | Graywolf Press,U.S. |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 448 |
| Release Date: | 16 December 2025 |
| Weight: | 767g |
| Dimensions: | 32mm x 181mm x 232mm |
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Critics Review
“In the era of labyrinths, binary delusions, erasures, and -harms, Algarabía is both salve and triumph. Roque Raquel Salas Rivera cultivates an epic universe, in every sense of the poetic tradition, while subverting the canon to embrace an expansive trans sanctuary of cosmologies, myths, yearning, humor, and joy. This collection is a sigil and atlas that calls out into the abyss a ‘canto of unwavering tenderness in the face of our extermination.’ Salas Rivera gathers a chorus to fashion a trans haven to affirm Algarabía as ‘a revolution as wild and communal as language, ’ a language that Salas Rivera dexterously assembles to remind readers that he is one of the most vital voices for today, tomorrow, and the days that must still be imagined.”–Anthony Cody, author of Borderland Apocrypha
“Algarabía is a gift. Salas Rivera dances along an invisible line between abstract wordplay and character-driven epic narrative, makes it look easy, and ensures that every line sizzles your synapses with the urgent delights and betrayals of the trans fight for existence. Along the way, he keeps coining new word combinations that straddle the fabulous chasm between ‘What did I just read?’ and ‘This is what I’ve always felt!’ Thick blocks of muscular text, shimmering lists of half-invented names that terminate with a political punchline, a litany of resistance, an intimate inversion, poems within poems within the story of a journey of self-discovery, all narrated with sparse precision. This is the trans epic poem that you didn’t know you needed until you’re wrapped in stanzas that feel like getting free.”–Dr. Sasha Costanza-Chock, author of Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need
“Algarabía is an epic poem following Cenex, a trans being living on a colony of Earth in a parallel universe… . The edition presents two texts, one in Puerto Rican Spanish and the other in English, exploring the complexities of language, identity, and colonial legacy.”–Electric Literature
“Roque Raquel Salas Rivera issues an invitation in what can comfortably be described as his magnum opus: to commit oneself to collective joy and freedom.”–Gemma Garcia Parellada, Full Stop
Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
Roque Raquel Salas Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet and translator. The 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, he has received a Premio Nuevas Voces, a Juan Felipe Herrera Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and the inaugural Ambroggio Prize.
Roque Raquel Salas Rivera es un poeta y traductor puertorriqueño. El Poeta Laureado de Filadelfia del 2018-19, ha recibido los premios Nuevas Voces, Juan Felipe Herrera, Lambda, y el premio Ambroggio inaugural.
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