Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight
This monthly series features poems by women of color in the early stages of their careers. It is our intention to create more space at Perugia for the work of BIWOC, and we hope using our modest platform to celebrate this work will expand the readership of the poets we spotlight. This series aligns with Perugia’s mission to support and promote emerging women poets; all the featured poems will be from BIWOC poets with no more than one published full-length collection. We’d love to hear from readers with suggestions for poems & poets to feature.
October 2022 Poet: SARA LUPITA OLIVARES
Of Inheritance
Because of the reckless woods what follows doesn't make the bird call back. What in private image remains unknown to even oneself. Guadalupe hated the north because it was too blanco and she spoke little English. Her children and their children a kind of muteness the weeds could retract. Each small thing that vanishes takes up more space. The tops of the pines point toward nothing. The mirror of non-identity where shortfall is to fury as place is to self-silence.
Source
Migratory Sound, The University of Arkansas Press, 2020
Poet Bio
Sara Lupita Olivares is the author of Migratory Sound (The University of Arkansas Press), which was selected as winner of the 2020 CantoMundo Poetry Prize. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The New York Times, Black Warrior Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Image Journal, and elsewhere. She lives, teaches, and writes in the Midwest.