Muscle Memory

by Kyle Carrero Lopez

Winner of the 2020 Little Book Contest

Kyle Carrero Lopez’s MUSCLE MEMORY covers money & work, Blackness & anti-blackness, the art world, queerness, & violence—governmental to interpersonal—as it swerves through its colorful landscape. Lopez interrogates the various complications of earthly living in a sharp, fresh voice, returning again & again to the musical core of his poetics. Afro-Cuban drumming & disco & Solange commune as these poems ping-pong between reverent softness and unsparing critique. Equal parts jovial and furious, this is a debut with teeth.

Genres: Poetry

52 pages, Unknown Binding

First published February 15, 2022

Reviews

[Bailey :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kyle's debut chapbook solidifies what skills and craft the poetry world has begun to associate with his name. His fun wit and his careful critique find their way woven through a sharp dedication to contemporary formalism. This is an important debut from one of the most exciting voices in a young generation of poets.

[Clementine · Rating 4 out of 5]

they didn't all work for me, but i liked this overall. lots of food for thought about the personal and the political and how they intersect, how we find/define community and identity, etc.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Race, sexuality, and socialism intertwine in magnificent chiaroscuros. A book that could make a Texas school board spontaneously combust.

(MUCH longer review coming soon...)

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired and incendiary. I loved the poems "RuPaul is Fracking" and "After Abolition" especially

[Kyle Dillon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary collection.