{"title":"Deborah Paredez","description":"\u003cp\u003eDeborah Paredez is a poet, performance scholar, and cultural critic whose writing explores the workings of memory, the legacies of war, and feminist elegy. She is the author of the poetry collections \u003cem\u003eYear of the Dog \u003c\/em\u003e(BOA Editions, 2020), winner of the 2020 Writers’ League of Texas Poetry Book Award and a New York Times \"New and Notable Poetry Book”, and \u003cem\u003eThis Side of Skin \u003c\/em\u003e(Wings Press, 2002). Other works include the critical study\u003cem\u003e American Diva\u003c\/em\u003e (Norton 2024)--a Time Must-Read book of 2024--and \u003ci\u003eSelenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e(Duke University Press, 2009). \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer poetry and essays have appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Boston Review, Poetry, Poet Lore,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eand the anthology,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eInheriting the War: Poetry and Prose by Descendants of Vietnam Veterans and Refugees\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(Norton 2018). \u003cspan\u003eHer honors include an Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation Award and residencies from the Vermont Studio Center and Hedgebrook. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParedez received her PhD in Interdisciplinary Theatre and Performance at Northwestern University and her BA in English at Trinity University. She is a co-founder of CantoMundo, a national organization that cultivates a community of Latinx poets, which she also served as a co-director from 2009–2019. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBorn and raised in San Antonio, She lives in New York City where she is a\u003cbr\u003eprofessor of creative writing and ethnic studies at Columbia University. For more information, please visit \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.deborahparedez.com\/\"\u003edeborahparedez.com\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"year-of-the-dog","title":"Year of the Dog","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Blessing the Boats Selection\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Books\u003c\/i\u003e New \u0026amp; Notable Poetry Book\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of \u003ci\u003eBig Other\u003c\/i\u003e's \"Most Anticipated Small Press Books of 2020\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOn \u003cem\u003eThe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003ci\u003e Rumpus\u003c\/i\u003e's list of \"What To Read When 2020 Is Just Around the Corner\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the tradition of women as the unsung keepers of history, Deborah Paredez’s second poetry collection tells her story as a Latina daughter of the Vietnam War.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe title refers to the year 1970—the Year of the Metal Dog in the lunar calendar—which was the year of the author’s birth, \u003cspan\u003ethe year her father prepared to deploy to Vietnam along with many other Mexican-American immigrant soldiers\u003c\/span\u003e, and a year of tremendous upheaval across the United States. Images from iconic photographs and her father’s snapshots are incorporated, fragmented, scrutinized, and reconstructed throughout the collection as Paredez recalls untold stories from a war that changed her family and the nation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn poems and lamentations that evoke Hecuba, the mythic figure so consumed by grief over the atrocities of war that she was transformed into a howling dog, and La Llorona, the weeping woman in Mexican folklore who haunts the riverbanks in mourning and threatens to disturb the complicity of those living in the present, Paredez recontextualizes the Vietnam era, from the arrest of Angela Davis to the haunting image of Mary Ann Vecchio at the Kent State Massacre, never forgetting the outcry and outrage that women’s voices have carried across time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003ePraise for Deborah Paredez\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Paredez has a gift for storytelling through form. This is an astonishing book.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly,\u003c\/i\u003e Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Candid and chilling, Deborah Paredez’s second collection of poems relates her stories and memories of being a Latinx daughter during the Việt Nam conflict.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMs. Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Deborah Paredez’s book \u003ci\u003eThe Year of the Dog\u003c\/i\u003e presents a palimpsest of grief howling at the exposed face of Empire. Mixing myth, memory, image, and textual documentary, her verse invents, fragments, constructs, and disfigures. Collectively the poems speak with chilling and touching clarity as they address systemic brutality and militarized power in service to state, nation, and whiteness. This book is fierce, moving, and necessary.” \u003cb\u003e—Hoa Nguyen, author of \u003ci\u003eViolet Energy Ingots\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Deborah Paredez’s \u003ci\u003eYear of the Dog\u003c\/i\u003e refuses to lay static on white space. Time is a character in this engaging collection, beginning in the tumultuous late ‘60s and reaching into now, today. Each poem becomes lyrical evidence laid before us—personal—and reckoned with. One feels the timeline has been lived. Yet, borders are crossed, fences jumped, and experimental detours—even graphic renderings—hold it all together. The echo of war and protest lingers. Paredez’s \u003ci\u003eYear of the Dog\u003c\/i\u003e is a song for now, as one confronts recent history through needful reflection.” \u003cb\u003e—Yusef Komunyakaa, author of \u003ci\u003eNeon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Deborah Paredez’s new collection, \u003ci\u003eYear of the Dog\u003c\/i\u003e, is a hauntingly beautiful collage, poems that move seamlessly between the close-up, intimate detail to a bird’s-eye view of history—like looking at one small segment of a large canvas then stepping back to take in the whole arresting sweep of it. Here, what it means to contend with grief, to live in the aftermath of national and personal trauma—the casualties and collateral damage of war and injustice—is in the hands of an unflinching witness. This is the inheritance of a poet born in the year of the dog: bound to the duty of remembering and to singing the names of the dead and the living in a voice turned again and again ‘into something essential.’” \u003cb\u003e—Natasha Trethewey, author of \u003ci\u003eMonument: Poems: New and Selected\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In this striking and powerful collection, Deborah Paredez explores the personal and mythical dimensions of war. Weaving images with autobiography, history with poetry, and self with family, \u003ci\u003eYear of the Dog\u003c\/i\u003e is an essential work for understanding how war is connected to every facet of our lives.” \u003cb\u003e—Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eWife's Disaster Manual\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the forsaken city starts to burn,\u003cbr\u003eafter the men and children have fled,\u003cbr\u003estand still, silent as prey, and slowly turn\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eback. Behold the curse. Stay and mourn\u003cbr\u003ethe collapsing doorways, the unbroken bread\u003cbr\u003ein the forsaken city starting to burn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDon’t flinch. Don’t join in.\u003cbr\u003eResist the righteous scurry and instead\u003cbr\u003estand still, silent as prey. Slowly turn\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eyour thoughts away from escape: the iron\u003cbr\u003egates unlatched, the responsibilities shed.\u003cbr\u003eWhen the forsaken city starts to burn,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003esurrender to your calling, show concern\u003cbr\u003efor those who remain. Come to a dead\u003cbr\u003estandstill. Silent as prey, slowly turn\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003einto something essential. Learn\u003cbr\u003ethe names of the fallen. Refuse to run ahead\u003cbr\u003ewhen the forsaken city starts to burn.\u003cbr\u003eStand still and silent. Pray. Return.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31210497540177,"sku":"9781950774012","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/YearoftheDog_CVR.jpg?v=1579697310"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/collections\/Paredez_2019_Credit_Sammy_Tunis.jpg?v=1573497480","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/collections\/deborah-paredez.oembed","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}