Auto/Body

by Vickie Vértiz

The poems in Auto/Body are an inexhaustible engine―sometimes a body, sometimes flesh―a sensual exploration of what it means to repair, to remake, to keep going even when rebuilding feels impossible. From the greased-up engines of auto body shops to the innumerable points of light striking the dance floor of a queer nightclub, Auto/Body, winner of the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry, connects the vulnerability of the narrating queer body to the language of auto mechanics to reveal their shared decadence. Behind the wheel of this book is an insistent, humorous voice whose experiences have lent themselves to a deep, intimate knowledge of survival, driven by the pursuit of joy and exalted pleasure. Raised in and near auto body shops, Vickie Vértiz remembers visiting them to elevate the family car to examine what’s underneath, to see what’s working and what’s not. The poetry in this book is also a body shop, but instead we take our bodies, identities, desires, and see what’s firing. In this shop we ask: What needs changing? How do our bodies transcend ways of being we have received so that we may become more ourselves? From odes to drag, to pushing back on the tyranny of patriarchy, to loving too hard and too queer, to growing up working-class in a time of incessant border violence and incarceration, this collection combusts with blood and fuel. In other words, Vértiz writes to dissolve a colonial engine and reconstruct a new vessel with its remains.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT

90 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2023

About the author

Vickie Vértiz was born and raised in southeast Los Angeles. Her writing explores the intersections of feminism, identity, and Latino sub-cultures through everyday beauty. With a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Texas, Austin, Vickie has established a career as a bridge-builder between under resourced communities and higher education through the art of writing and advocacy.

Her writing is widely anthologized, found in publications such as Open the Door, a teaching guide from McSweeney’s and The Poetry Foundation. Her poetry collection, Swallows is currently available for purchase from Finishing Line Press.

Presently, she is a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Riverside.

Reviews

[naviya]

- has excellent poems, and also some poems that were not yet ready to be published (like any collection)
- my faves: I want to last, I'm that bitch: voice mail, cyanotype (in a NYC public library)
- in general I enjoyed the "distributor" section
[got it from the ssfpl recs]

[Courtney LeBlanc]

A collection of poems about identity, the body, cars, and desire.

from La Cuenta: "You twirl in your leather jacket—the fringe / Grazes my arm. That is the distance from which I love you / There are too many people to share you with / What am I supposed to do?"

from Happiness is Going to Pieces: "We have our languages, and then we don't / Our people win ultramarathons without a major sponsor. In huaraches / Born to run. We can't run fast enough away from malevolent patrols / and toward indictments that never arrive."

from I Take—and Keep—My Flesh: "I am a passenger, my leather / a crashing view / Silent streets remember / Lap belt marks on my thighs / And while I am / not my mother, I am / her skin"

[Gabriel Noel]

ARC given by Edelweiss+ for Honest Review

Gorgeous, lyrical, and tender. Many of the poems has parts in Spanish which was a great exercise in translating how we say things across languages and good practice for my very rusty Spanish skills.

My favorite poems are: "i don't know what else to tell you about t e a r g a s", "San Francisco", and "I Take - and Keep - My Flesh."

[Elizabeth Sanders]

Found the poems mostly inaccessible due to not reading Spanish (fault of mine, not the author, someone who can read both languages would be better to review); some interesting structures, but overall didn’t speak to me

[ale]

aman otihuetz ihuan timococohua' otihuetzito'campa'miac huiztli'
itic zoquiatl
motlacayo'aman yezquiza'

[Bonnie]

An interesting premise that is unevenly executed.