Nefarious

by Emanuel Xavier

With heartfelt honesty, Emanuel Xavier's fourth full-length poetry collection Nefarious welcomes the reader into the later second act of a former underage prostitute. This book captures insights into his private world: relationships, heartbreaks, life as a spoken word artist, time spent with his cat, aging. With a dose of dark humor, Xavier's pleasure in the written word and his passion makes this an engaging collection.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Emanuel Xavier helped open the doors for queer poets of color to take center stage and speak their truths. Through passion and perseverance, he emerged as an LGBTQ+ icon, as proclaimed by The Equality Forum. Long before diversity, equity, and inclusion became buzzwords, Xavier gave voice to his lived experiences, confronting politics, sexuality, and religion in poetry collections such as Pier Queen, Americano, If Jesus Were Gay, Nefarious, and Radiance.

Following Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier—named one of Kirkus’ Best Indie Poetry Collections of 2021—he returned to an intimate exploration of Latinx and LGBTQ+ culture, community, and identity with Love(ly) Child (Rebel Satori Press, 2023), a finalist for the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. His forthcoming collection, Still, We Are Sacred (Rebel Satori Press, 2026), continues this work with poems of survival, resistance, and unapologetic queer joy.

Reviews

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Xavier's ability to tell a story is fantastic, but his ability to open up and tell that story from his heart is what makes this collection phenomenal. At times, you feel nothing but sympathetic for Xavier, although you know that he will come out winning. The stories/poems in this collection are open, brutally honest, thought provoking, and captivating all at the same time. Xavier's humbleness, appreciation of all the small things, and his ability to forgive, or at least understand, his wrongdoers is remarkable. His warm soul shines through and reaches out to the reader on every page. Nefarious is a must read... poetry fan, or not.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up. I think I would’ve liked this better if not for the middle poem which was 21 parts and felt like it dragged on compared to everything else (also used the t word twice which was rather unfortunate)

[Aaron Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped me discover more of Emanuel and who he is a writer, thinker, pioneered out of the obscurity of abuse. He touches on some personal but important topics that are no longer considered forbidden in the everyday conversation.

[willowdog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using his life as the subject, Xavier reflects on the past as well as his present state, looking at love, sex, family, writing, and life.