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Virgin
Selected by Ross Gay as winner of the inaugural Jake Adam York Prize, Analicia Sotelo's debut collection of poems is a vivid portrait of the artist as a young woman.
In Virgin, Sotelo walks the line between autobiography and mythmaking, offering up identities like dishes at a feast. These poems devour and complicate tropes of femininity--of naivete, of careless abandon--before sharply exploring the intelligence and fortitude of women, how "far & wide, / how dark & deep / this frigid female mind can go." At every step, Sotelo's poems seduce with history, folklore, and sensory detail--grilled meat, golden habaneros, and burnt sugar--before delivering clear-eyed and eviscerating insights into power, deceit, relationships, and ourselves.
Blistering and gorgeous, Virgin is an audacious act of imaginative self-mythology from one of our most promising young poets.
In Virgin, Sotelo walks the line between autobiography and mythmaking, offering up identities like dishes at a feast. These poems devour and complicate tropes of femininity--of naivete, of careless abandon--before sharply exploring the intelligence and fortitude of women, how "far & wide, / how dark & deep / this frigid female mind can go." At every step, Sotelo's poems seduce with history, folklore, and sensory detail--grilled meat, golden habaneros, and burnt sugar--before delivering clear-eyed and eviscerating insights into power, deceit, relationships, and ourselves.
Blistering and gorgeous, Virgin is an audacious act of imaginative self-mythology from one of our most promising young poets.
95 pages, Paperback
First published February 13, 2018
28 people are currently reading
2192 people want to read
About the author
Analicia Sotelo
3 books21 followersAnalicia Sotelo is the author of Virgin, the inaugural winner of the Jake Adam York Prize, selected by Ross Gay for Milkweed Editions (2018) and the chapbook, Nonstop Godhead, selected by Rigoberto González for Poetry Society of America. The poem “I’m Trying to Write a Poem About a Virgin and It’s Awful” was selected for Best New Poets 2015 by Tracy K. Smith. Poems have also appeared in the The New Yorker, Boston Review, The Nation, Kenyon Review, Poem-a-Day and The New England Review. Analicia is a Canto Mundo fellow and the recipient of the 2016 DISQUIET International Literary Prize. Analicia holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Houston and works at The Black Sheep Agency.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 123 reviews
February 19, 2018
I was hooked from the first poem, "Do You Speak Virgin?" from this impressive debut collection by Analicia Sotelo.
My favorites included:
"Ariadne's Guide to Getting a Man"
"My Mother & the Parable of the Lemons"
"My English Victorian Dating Troubles."
What I like about them - the way they feel youthful, but not naive. The way the poet's voice knows her inexperience but moves through the world deliberately masking her understanding of it so other women feel safe, and she herself is safer (but not from love.) The way there are slight elements of Mexican culture, the way someone who grows up in another country still has some cultural references from their background. The division of poems into sections like "Myths" and "Parables." The characters that have already started to recur in her memory, her dreams, and now her poems. Great stuff.
I had an eARC from Milkweed through Edelweiss... Virgin comes out February 20!
My favorites included:
"Ariadne's Guide to Getting a Man"
"My Mother & the Parable of the Lemons"
"My English Victorian Dating Troubles."
What I like about them - the way they feel youthful, but not naive. The way the poet's voice knows her inexperience but moves through the world deliberately masking her understanding of it so other women feel safe, and she herself is safer (but not from love.) The way there are slight elements of Mexican culture, the way someone who grows up in another country still has some cultural references from their background. The division of poems into sections like "Myths" and "Parables." The characters that have already started to recur in her memory, her dreams, and now her poems. Great stuff.
I had an eARC from Milkweed through Edelweiss... Virgin comes out February 20!
March 20, 2020
That was the bookstore,
the last time I saw him.
Now you are a page I read
while holding my breath. I’ll turn you
into something else, a footnote
of a person. Like I was
sitting next to you on our friend’s couch,
your hand on my thigh for several seconds.
You said it—Do you want me to cook for you?
—as if you could promise that and more.
the last time I saw him.
Now you are a page I read
while holding my breath. I’ll turn you
into something else, a footnote
of a person. Like I was
sitting next to you on our friend’s couch,
your hand on my thigh for several seconds.
You said it—Do you want me to cook for you?
—as if you could promise that and more.
March 23, 2018
This was a great collection of poems reflecting on how a young woman comes to find her place in the world and love herself. Many of the poems use the Ariadne myth as a basis, but others relate to art and her Mexican American culture.
June 2, 2021
i bet i will think about “i love ideas more than men / myself even less than ideas” every single day for the rest of my life :)
July 20, 2025
“First, you must feel that no one could love you ever.
Let the feeling become a veil of black paper.
Let the paper become papier-mâché.
Make the mâché into marionette monsters.
Make the monsters fall in love and scold them
when they disappear down the hallway.
When your friends look for husbands
with muscles, horns, and hooves,
make a face like you ate something tart,
like their taste in men is beastly.
Grow up some, but not with your body.
The book you are reading is about a girl who rejects a god.
The book you are reading is about a girl no one believes.
Consider loving a clever man with a multisyllabic name,
a name you could trust,
like Sophocles, Socrates, Thucydides—
all soft at the edges and likely
to appreciate your stretches of languorous study.
You are at a drama festival in a sundress, eating honey cake.
Where are they?
Grow up even more, to the point where nothing fits.
Call a young doctor to help diagnose the problem.
He’ll give you a bottle called: Dr. Naxos’s Remedy for Acute Neuralgia.
Take it with egg white and saffron after a night dream.
Do you trust him? No, but everyone has left you
to take in the country air.
Three nights later, you see him again—
his tall, crepuscular body separates itself from the lilies.
And you realize the body is not grotesque—that it is, in fact,
like a bolt of fine batiste gathered in your hand,
but first you must give up
a willingness to be right about the world.
Your brother is howling.
Your brother is howling
because your mother chose love and look where it left her."
Let the feeling become a veil of black paper.
Let the paper become papier-mâché.
Make the mâché into marionette monsters.
Make the monsters fall in love and scold them
when they disappear down the hallway.
When your friends look for husbands
with muscles, horns, and hooves,
make a face like you ate something tart,
like their taste in men is beastly.
Grow up some, but not with your body.
The book you are reading is about a girl who rejects a god.
The book you are reading is about a girl no one believes.
Consider loving a clever man with a multisyllabic name,
a name you could trust,
like Sophocles, Socrates, Thucydides—
all soft at the edges and likely
to appreciate your stretches of languorous study.
You are at a drama festival in a sundress, eating honey cake.
Where are they?
Grow up even more, to the point where nothing fits.
Call a young doctor to help diagnose the problem.
He’ll give you a bottle called: Dr. Naxos’s Remedy for Acute Neuralgia.
Take it with egg white and saffron after a night dream.
Do you trust him? No, but everyone has left you
to take in the country air.
Three nights later, you see him again—
his tall, crepuscular body separates itself from the lilies.
And you realize the body is not grotesque—that it is, in fact,
like a bolt of fine batiste gathered in your hand,
but first you must give up
a willingness to be right about the world.
Your brother is howling.
Your brother is howling
because your mother chose love and look where it left her."
July 6, 2020
"When they said Virgin, they meant Version we've left behind. I didn't trust them."
In Virgin, Sotelo use various styles of prose to push and pull on the identity and roles of Mexican-American women and sexuality. Reading from a local Houston poet like Sotelo is especially intimate for me because it captures a unique commentary of Latinx culture and feminism that builds and smolders as you work your way through the collection.
I connected with many of her poems due to her meditative craft but also to her specific thought and Texan setting. I was impressed with how she captures the unique hunger for love and respect in some poems like "Summer Barbecue with Two Men."
Poetry like this begs you to slow down and dissect them over and over again. Some of these poems are lush and a number are inspired by Greek myths. There's a poem called "South Texas Persephone" and an entire part called "Myth" including a number of poems about Ariadne and her relationships to Minotaur and Theseus. I highly recommend this!
April 12, 2019
"I dream the scent
of my mother's lipstick
has come back to haunt me---
like an oil pastel
marking
my dreary, dramatic heart."
I loved this collection. The poems gained momentum as I read, and I read the very last one, The Ariadne Year, four times in a row. I love how she blends heartache and humor and beauty, and I love how I feel like I got some sense of who she is, like she opened a window into her mind, her soul. I don't always feel that with poetry, but I did here.
of my mother's lipstick
has come back to haunt me---
like an oil pastel
marking
my dreary, dramatic heart."
I loved this collection. The poems gained momentum as I read, and I read the very last one, The Ariadne Year, four times in a row. I love how she blends heartache and humor and beauty, and I love how I feel like I got some sense of who she is, like she opened a window into her mind, her soul. I don't always feel that with poetry, but I did here.
June 18, 2025
“I dream / the scent of my mother’s lipstick / has come back to haunt me — / like an oil pastel / marking / my dreary, dramatic heart” <3
April 26, 2019
"How’s my birthday lamb? Oh, brutal. Delicious."
May 6, 2020
Virgin is multiple award winning poet Analicia Sotelo's first collection. Many of these were previously published individually in various places. It is incredibly well reviewed. There are some highlights in this collection, including Personal Property and the several poems which look into the relationship between the author and her estranged/absentee father and her father and mother. Yet, this fully reminded me why I don't read more poetry. Call me lazy if you want, but I got tired trying to pick out the meaning in every single word and phrase. It wasn't so much readable as a puzzle of words that had to be mentally sorted and pieced together before being understood. Reading this was like watching those insane fashions on a fashion week runway. I can appreciate the effort and design all while knowing I'm going to wear jeans and a sweater. I can appreciate the genius of parts of this (not all - some of the poems weren't that great) but reject it for other authors' more accessible styles (i.e. Miller Williams).
Read
August 15, 2019My favorite section in the collection is the one titled, MYTH, which features poems about Ariadne, Theseus, and the Minotaur.
Favorite poems include, "South Texas Persephone" and "Ariadne Discusses Theseus in Relation to the Minotaur."
"We're all performing our bruises." (p.20)
"When they said Virgin, they meant Version we've left behind." (p.23)
"That's what marriage is like, you know,
someone is always well prepared
for the sacrifice, and someone else
is the sacrifice." (p.77)
Favorite poems include, "South Texas Persephone" and "Ariadne Discusses Theseus in Relation to the Minotaur."
"We're all performing our bruises." (p.20)
"When they said Virgin, they meant Version we've left behind." (p.23)
"That's what marriage is like, you know,
someone is always well prepared
for the sacrifice, and someone else
is the sacrifice." (p.77)
December 12, 2020
“Is it possible, without major social and political change, for women to have equitable and mutually satisfying relationships with men at all?”
I asked this question in an essay I wrote several years ago. It’s a Gordian knot of a problem that I imagine has troubled women since before recorded history, and certainly since the advent of feminism.
What, then, is a straight, sexual woman to do?
Analicia Sotelo wrestles brilliantly with this paradox in her first full length poetry collection, Virgin, published by Milkweed Editions. She takes Greek mythology as her overarching conceit, a tradition perfectly suited to her questioning and conclusions: Ancient Greek culture is foundational to Western society and, one might argue, just as misogynistic. She casts herself as a modern-day Ariadne, the mythical daughter of a king or a goddess in her own right depending on the telling, who betrays her father and country to save Theseus, a hero who eventually abandons her despite her sacrifice. All Sotelo’s lovers, who remain unnamed, are Theseuses.
Sotelo’s poetic self is both hopeful and cuttingly cynical. She longs for the attention and praise of men she knows see her as something to be used to bolster their egos and discarded when this purpose has been served, but whether she is avoiding the eye contact of a former lover at a wedding reception or willing a man out of her apartment after sex, she remains detached, never giving herself over fully. Still, each Theseus seems to leave a sad, bitter taste in her mouth. Her feminist freedom comes neither from denying her desire for sex and romance with men nor finding the good one, but instead from her ability and willingness to leave for self-preservation, even if that comes with pain and disappointment.
It’s a lesson she makes clear was learned from her father, a Zeus-like figure whose chief concern is his art, and her mother, a bitter but fiercely protective Hera, herself a former artist who gave up her career after marriage. Her mother’s experience of emotional abandonment makes her caution her daughter often about what men can do to you if you aren’t watching, and sometimes even if you are. Sotelo refers to her Tejano heritage throughout but emphasizes it most when she speaks of her parents, who at one point she compares to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera—no matter their genius, they repeat the patterns of machismo and female subjugation embedded in Latin American culture, just as they are in Anglo-Western culture. Sotelo insists on acknowledging her double cultural heritage and her difference in a literary and academic world saturated with condescending white men, but like her willingness to flee, she isn’t bound to either tradition as a writer.
The postmodern Millennial feminism that simultaneously entertains and disdains men, encapsulated in wildly popular media such as Kristen Roupenian’s short story “Cat Person” and the Academy Award-winning film The Favorite, reflects a cultural ethos where women put themselves first. Sotelo’s Virgin, with its multi-layered metaphors, incisive philosophical postulating, and lyrical yet blunt storytelling, is central to this growing canon of texts, and answers that ancient question of men’s involvement in our lives with another option: a man in our bed is a pleasure we won’t deny, but we needn’t give ourselves over to them. In fact, we don’t owe them anything.
I asked this question in an essay I wrote several years ago. It’s a Gordian knot of a problem that I imagine has troubled women since before recorded history, and certainly since the advent of feminism.
What, then, is a straight, sexual woman to do?
Analicia Sotelo wrestles brilliantly with this paradox in her first full length poetry collection, Virgin, published by Milkweed Editions. She takes Greek mythology as her overarching conceit, a tradition perfectly suited to her questioning and conclusions: Ancient Greek culture is foundational to Western society and, one might argue, just as misogynistic. She casts herself as a modern-day Ariadne, the mythical daughter of a king or a goddess in her own right depending on the telling, who betrays her father and country to save Theseus, a hero who eventually abandons her despite her sacrifice. All Sotelo’s lovers, who remain unnamed, are Theseuses.
Sotelo’s poetic self is both hopeful and cuttingly cynical. She longs for the attention and praise of men she knows see her as something to be used to bolster their egos and discarded when this purpose has been served, but whether she is avoiding the eye contact of a former lover at a wedding reception or willing a man out of her apartment after sex, she remains detached, never giving herself over fully. Still, each Theseus seems to leave a sad, bitter taste in her mouth. Her feminist freedom comes neither from denying her desire for sex and romance with men nor finding the good one, but instead from her ability and willingness to leave for self-preservation, even if that comes with pain and disappointment.
It’s a lesson she makes clear was learned from her father, a Zeus-like figure whose chief concern is his art, and her mother, a bitter but fiercely protective Hera, herself a former artist who gave up her career after marriage. Her mother’s experience of emotional abandonment makes her caution her daughter often about what men can do to you if you aren’t watching, and sometimes even if you are. Sotelo refers to her Tejano heritage throughout but emphasizes it most when she speaks of her parents, who at one point she compares to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera—no matter their genius, they repeat the patterns of machismo and female subjugation embedded in Latin American culture, just as they are in Anglo-Western culture. Sotelo insists on acknowledging her double cultural heritage and her difference in a literary and academic world saturated with condescending white men, but like her willingness to flee, she isn’t bound to either tradition as a writer.
The postmodern Millennial feminism that simultaneously entertains and disdains men, encapsulated in wildly popular media such as Kristen Roupenian’s short story “Cat Person” and the Academy Award-winning film The Favorite, reflects a cultural ethos where women put themselves first. Sotelo’s Virgin, with its multi-layered metaphors, incisive philosophical postulating, and lyrical yet blunt storytelling, is central to this growing canon of texts, and answers that ancient question of men’s involvement in our lives with another option: a man in our bed is a pleasure we won’t deny, but we needn’t give ourselves over to them. In fact, we don’t owe them anything.
November 25, 2019
“Virgin”
Written by Analicia Sotelo
Reviewed by Diana Iozzia
“Virgin” by Analicia Sotelo is a collection of poetry, the first work I have read by this author. The author incorporates themes of murder, death, comedy, mythology, religion, mental illness, adulthood, femininity, modernity, and literature.
Personally, this collection was not within the realm of poetry that I would enjoy. I found Sotelo’s poetry to be odd and blunt, with elements that were too dark and complicated for me, often too political.
I had a wonderful favorite from this collection, “South Texas Persephone”. If you had told me that this was the inspiration for a favorite musical, “Hadestown”, I would have absolutely believed you. This beautiful and interesting twist on Persephone’s mythology was a great read.
Other poems I enjoyed were: “A Little Charm”, “Trauma with Damp Stairwells”, and “Trauma of Haberdashery”.
To conclude, I was not a fan of this collection. The poems I did not like completely outweighed the great ones. However, my enjoyment for the much more enjoyable ones does allow my review with three stars instead of lower. I recommend this poetry to those who like the themes I had mentioned. However, Sotelo seems to be an acquired taste. I hope those who give her a try will enjoy!
I received a complimentary copy of this book to read and review from the publisher.
Written by Analicia Sotelo
Reviewed by Diana Iozzia
“Virgin” by Analicia Sotelo is a collection of poetry, the first work I have read by this author. The author incorporates themes of murder, death, comedy, mythology, religion, mental illness, adulthood, femininity, modernity, and literature.
Personally, this collection was not within the realm of poetry that I would enjoy. I found Sotelo’s poetry to be odd and blunt, with elements that were too dark and complicated for me, often too political.
I had a wonderful favorite from this collection, “South Texas Persephone”. If you had told me that this was the inspiration for a favorite musical, “Hadestown”, I would have absolutely believed you. This beautiful and interesting twist on Persephone’s mythology was a great read.
Other poems I enjoyed were: “A Little Charm”, “Trauma with Damp Stairwells”, and “Trauma of Haberdashery”.
To conclude, I was not a fan of this collection. The poems I did not like completely outweighed the great ones. However, my enjoyment for the much more enjoyable ones does allow my review with three stars instead of lower. I recommend this poetry to those who like the themes I had mentioned. However, Sotelo seems to be an acquired taste. I hope those who give her a try will enjoy!
I received a complimentary copy of this book to read and review from the publisher.
November 17, 2018
This is a book with serious poems that interweave remnants from classic Western mythology, Catholic imagery, and Mexican American experiences.
But the whole collection was worth reading to be surprised/tickled by these lines:
"See, there is a white man
in every single one of us.
Yes, everyone is wearing casual yacht wear now
& mispronouncing their specialty condiments
O gentlemen
I am the angel/whore of kale chips"
Anyway, my favorites are "I'm Trying to Write a Poem about a Virgin and It's Awful," "Trauma with a Second Chance at Humiliation," "My English Victorian Dating Troubles," and "The Adriadne Year."
But the whole collection was worth reading to be surprised/tickled by these lines:
"See, there is a white man
in every single one of us.
Yes, everyone is wearing casual yacht wear now
& mispronouncing their specialty condiments
O gentlemen
I am the angel/whore of kale chips"
Anyway, my favorites are "I'm Trying to Write a Poem about a Virgin and It's Awful," "Trauma with a Second Chance at Humiliation," "My English Victorian Dating Troubles," and "The Adriadne Year."
September 4, 2018
I appreciated the multiplicity of styles, sometimes letting words languish and drag, other times pushing one after another. Her titles work incredibly well as a supplement to the poem itself, with examples like "I'm trying to write a poem about a virgin and it's awful," setting the tone that helpfully contrasts with a series inspired by Greek myth. I read this volume quickly for school, but it deserves more time than I gave it, and there are large sections I would like to return to at a slower pace.
February 8, 2020
Ok so I’m the first to say I did not totally understand all of these poems (I almost never understand 100 percent of any given poetry collection). But I appreciated the gorgeous imagery (“The moon pointed out my neckline like a chaperone”) and the inclusion of Greek mythology, as well as the perspective on the speaker’s family. I don’t know that “understanding” is something that really needs to happen with this collection. Just enjoy the journey.
July 5, 2023
“You want to apologize for leading me on,
but I want a different apology. An apologia
for how I think of you: nonstop Godhead.”
YEAHHHH GREEK MYTHOLOGY YEAHHHH MARRIAGE BAD YEAHHHH MY LOVE IS TOO MUCH AND TOO LITTLE AT THE SAME TIME YEAHHH ITS 4 AM (and more quotes cause theres too many i want to choose)
“the expectation
that you’ll understand intuitively
what has taken me years to describe”
but I want a different apology. An apologia
for how I think of you: nonstop Godhead.”
YEAHHHH GREEK MYTHOLOGY YEAHHHH MARRIAGE BAD YEAHHHH MY LOVE IS TOO MUCH AND TOO LITTLE AT THE SAME TIME YEAHHH ITS 4 AM (and more quotes cause theres too many i want to choose)
“the expectation
that you’ll understand intuitively
what has taken me years to describe”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2018
I don't read a lot of poetry, but I thought this was okay. There's some good stuff about male toxicity here.
January 30, 2020
I picked this up because the cover really caught my eye, ended up really liking the Ariadne-inspired poems.
January 26, 2022
These poems were beautiful. My favorites were Expiration Date, Private Property, Trauma with Haberdashery, Trauma with a Second Chance at Humiliation, My English Victorian Dating Troubles.
August 6, 2024
I stand by the fact that I don't really "get" poetry, and I frankly don't have a huge desire to *try* to "get" it. But sometimes I come across a poetry collection that makes me go "wow, this is really good" and this was one of those! She discusses heartbreak, family, femininity in a really fun way, even as she delves into the darker sides of each. A lot of her poems are told through retelling of Greek myths, which is interesting when you've got a collection entitled "Virgin" you'd expect there to be mostly Catholic allegories. I also think Greek retellings can be so cliched and overdone these days, but I am impressed to say we did not fall in that trap here. As with all poetry I read, I immediately feel like I need to reread it to understand better the themes and tales she tells, but after my initial read through, I can tell she is an excellent writer and these are great poems.
Read
March 18, 2020loved her sensory detail - the food especially, and the symbolism for it. BBQ. egg yolks. grilled peaches and a line about a man cooking meat that I understood completely.
March 31, 2021
On facing an anachronistic appetite
February 19, 2019
Not a lot of this stuck with me, so I guess it's not a top pick for me. That said, Sotelo is a fierce female voice. I like thinking about this alongside "The Poet X" by Elizabeth Acevedo.
October 21, 2019
2.5 stars
Sotelo has a very youthful voice. There is promise here and I’d like to see what she publishes in the future, but I found this collection was uneven, and didn’t really “speak” to me.
Sotelo has a very youthful voice. There is promise here and I’d like to see what she publishes in the future, but I found this collection was uneven, and didn’t really “speak” to me.
Private Property
In this minor emergency of the self,
we drink to become confused,
to swim in the dark like idiot fish.
This is a lake at night in a forest.
This is where we look up at the stains
in the sky and someone says, It’s purpling out here,
and someone else says, Someone write that down.
We’re all performing our bruises.
Chloe smiles like a specialty knife,
Bea tells stories like a bubbly divorcee,
Clara smokes like a sage in her coiffed towel,
expertly naked, third eye shining.
I hang back on the shore with Kyle.
We talk about his man in New York
while our skinny-dipping sirens
sing show tunes in the violet dark.
Later, we’re all in a clinic at 3 a.m.
handling Kyle’s broken ankle.
It’s so embarrassing, he keeps saying.
And it is: Earlier, doing the sprinkler
in a dorm room to Please Don’t Stop the Music,
he kept yelling, Stop the Music! Stop the Music!
until we understood: he wasn’t actually joking.
And sometimes the poems were like that.
When we wrote knife, bubbly, naked,
we were really getting down,
dancing hard on the injury.
Ariadne Discusses Theseus in Relation to the Minotaur
When a man tells you he’s a monster,
believe him.
When a man says
you will get hurt,
leave. Get into
a boat, out
onto a sea that everyone owns.
Who cares.
Look,
he touched the curls of his hair
before touching mine.
I didn’t question him until all the thread was gone.
October 13, 2018
This book (actually, an e-book sent by the generous Mark Anthony Cayanan) reminds me of the films Ladybird and The Little Hours, both of which were released in 2017, explored how a woman's knowledge and intimacy with her own sexuality can render her vulnerable once and powerful ever, and instructed men on how to look at a woman: not with elation for the giftedness of the body, but with fascination for the outspokenness of the mind. "Now I have three heads: one / for speech, one for sex, / and one for second-guessing." Analicia Sotelo presents in Virgin (Milkweed Editions, 2018) an autobiographical persona who traced her roots then braved her way through the society's double standards with her boldness and courage. But the lyricism she offered bordered on quietude and composure, all the poems that are desired to articulate the overarching theme are but gentle piercings on the soul. "We're all performing our bruises". And this performance is like telling us, there's nothing wrong with stories of abandonment, there's nothing wrong with counts of loneliness and separation, there's nothing wrong with wild fantasies, as long as these are expressed beautifully, without the intention of forceful imposition. With the prudence of myths, of parables and of motifs of the speculative, this postcolonial attempt to represent the aspirations of young Mexican-American girls gracefully achieved its organic unity. May publications like this reach our archipelago, where people busy themselves with survival, where people "think" that "thinking", the occasional contemplations on art, is not affordable.
December 27, 2023
I loved this. I love the feel and the intensity. My favorite sections was Myth with Parable being a close second. My favorite poems were Theseus at the Naxos Apartment Complex, 6 am, Death Wish, Ariadne Discusses Theseus in Relation to the Minotaur, and Father Fragments (or, Yellow Ochre).
*
When a man tells you he is a monster, believe him. When a man says you will get hurt, leave. Get into a boat, out onto a sea that everyone owns.
and everyone knows the best kinds of shadows look like the worst kinds of men.
See the instinct for painting is the instinct for power
& the skull I carried in my hand in case anyone took record? Still on my fingers.
I'm only good at killing what I know, then taking off. So take it off if you want to. They can't say I didn't warn you. I wasn't made for morals. I was born to do things right.
This day is proof that that there is a sundial for every single decision in history, and a garden is a garden once you name it
And remember: a mother will always love you, but a man can draw you in.
If you do marry, marry well or marry never.
I'm morbid and loving. You made me.
Mother, your likeness is not easy or accidental.
*
When a man tells you he is a monster, believe him. When a man says you will get hurt, leave. Get into a boat, out onto a sea that everyone owns.
and everyone knows the best kinds of shadows look like the worst kinds of men.
See the instinct for painting is the instinct for power
& the skull I carried in my hand in case anyone took record? Still on my fingers.
I'm only good at killing what I know, then taking off. So take it off if you want to. They can't say I didn't warn you. I wasn't made for morals. I was born to do things right.
This day is proof that that there is a sundial for every single decision in history, and a garden is a garden once you name it
And remember: a mother will always love you, but a man can draw you in.
If you do marry, marry well or marry never.
I'm morbid and loving. You made me.
Mother, your likeness is not easy or accidental.
January 3, 2019
I really enjoyed this book of poems. Sotelo has a good handle on that poetic voice that is at once conversational and at the same time takes wild, exaggerated lyric turns that include striking imagery that is outside of the usual conversational range, or at least mine is. Given the title, it's probably not too big a shock that this book is interested in interrogating questions of female identity and desire, and it does this through five or six short cycles of poems. The figures of Theseus, Ariadne, and the Minotau recur, as does the mother and father, who seem to have a more strictly bioraphical resonance alongside the more mythic characters mentioned.
It was good, though maybe a little cloying at times-- the footsie playing of the first sections, where we are asked to read this against the persona's claims to virginity, might be a little grating on rereading. And the last section, for some reason, just fell flat to me. But these are bracing lyrics and I was mostly captivated and impressed throughout.
It was good, though maybe a little cloying at times-- the footsie playing of the first sections, where we are asked to read this against the persona's claims to virginity, might be a little grating on rereading. And the last section, for some reason, just fell flat to me. But these are bracing lyrics and I was mostly captivated and impressed throughout.
August 9, 2018
Eh, didn't really connect with this one. Lots of subpar Plath karaoke, randomly dispersed line breaks in occasionally interesting-sounding but ultimately meaning-free and slippery prose, a surfeit of boring and facile autobiography, an overarching lack of rigor. Perhaps unfairly, as I read I think I began to hold Virgin up as the avatar for everything that annoys me about contemporary poetry. I did think that the quality picked up considerably in the latter sections that dealt more with mythological archetypes rather than becardiganed grad students at shitty potlucks.
dnf
March 1, 2021DNF @18%
2018; Milkweed Editions
I force read the first few poems, and then started skimming all the ones I could not get into, so was done in five minutes. The poetry was not to my liking. I could not relate or feel for the poems. For me, I usually either love or don't poems.
***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***
2018; Milkweed Editions
I force read the first few poems, and then started skimming all the ones I could not get into, so was done in five minutes. The poetry was not to my liking. I could not relate or feel for the poems. For me, I usually either love or don't poems.
***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***
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