REDWORK

by Laurie Ann Guerrero

Laurie Ann Guerrero’s expansive fifth poetry collection, REDWORK,
is a meditation on a woman’s role in work and family, ancestral
wisdom, and the subversive nature of female art.

Interwoven with images of the author’s intricate redwork embroidery—striking
red thread on light textiles—these poems explore reproductive justice, violence,
gender dynamics, internalized sexism, and mothers and mothering, bound by the
belief that “the red thread ties me, like a vein, to all my mothers.” From a
paradigm-shifting slap at a Brownies troop meeting to eating a rattlesnake to a
great-grandmother rising from her coffin, Guerrero’s precise, visceral voice
threads the imagery of embroidery through unexpected forms. Rhythmic stitches
echo in her repetitions, leaving phrases that stay with the reader: “How quietly our
trust began.”

96 pages, Paperback

Expected publication October 13, 2026

About the author

Poet, essayist, and visual artist, Laurie Ann Guerrero was born and raised in the Southside of San Antonio and is the author of REDWORK, winner of the 2025 Autumn House Poetry Award, forthcoming in October 2026. Poet Laureate of San Antonio (2014-16) and Texas (2016-2017), her award-winning collections, along with a volume of new & selected poems, include Babies under the Skin (Panhandler 2008), A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying (University of Notre Dame Press 2013), A Crown for Gumecindo, a collaboration with visual artist, Maceo Montoya (Aztlan Libre Press 2015), and I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake: New & Selected Poems (TCU Press 2021).

Guerrero holds a B.A. in English Language & Literature from Smith College and an MFA in poetry from Drew University. She is an Associate Professor and the Writer-in-Residence at Texas A&M University-San Antonio where she teaches writing and gender studies. Her poem, "Along the Medina," is on permanent display in Business Library Hall on the Texas A&M-SA campus, where she is currently at work on a novel set in both present day and 1800s San Antonio.

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am called to a place where I encounter a history I wasn’t prepared to encounter. Something about this made my own hands vital in that timeline of women and record and art. I can only now name the intent of teaching my son to embroider when he was four years old and I was twenty-three, pregnant with his sister: revolution.”
– Excerpt from the poem “Witch’s Script”

A beautifully written and emotionally impactful poetry collection, Redwork addresses difficult subject matter through multiple art forms. The poetry and embroidery blend well together, as needlework metaphors and research ran through the poems. My favorite poems were those that researched the history of embroidery, its connection to women’s work, and how its importance has been historically downplayed. This is my favorite poetry collection of the year and I would highly recommend it!

I received an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.