Emma Trelles / Emily Pérez

PALABRA PURA's visiting feature tonight is Miami-based poet, Emma Trelles, author of the book shown above. I met her for the first time back in February of 2008, when made the drive up to Palm Beach to attend the first installment of "The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry ON TOUR." Needless to say, I'm looking forward to her reading tonight.

Here's LPR reviewer Emily Pérez on Trelles:

"[ ]..It was a pleasure to read Emma Trelles's work for the first time; I was struck especially by the structure of her poems. The pieces get off to a running start, aided by their titles, which serve both to set the stage and draw the reader in: "How to Write a Poem: Theory #62," "What Would Have Happened If I Had Married You," "In an Alcove Between the Beacon and the Avalon," and "Autumn, Unexpected." Her language is crisp and dense, marrying the specific and the abstract, such as in these lines from "How to Write a Poem": "She's buying toilet paper and Mahatma rice. This is her life/ and you happened to ease into it at the wooden lull/ between explosions" (14). I love the subtlety of the rhyme and the contrasting order of magnitude in the pair "rice" and "life," a juxtaposition echoed in the errands and explosions. Trelles also knows how to craft an ending, bringing her pieces in for landings while keeping them aloft, such as in the last line of "Autumn,
Unexpected": "Kites spin above heads. Dust rises into light" (15). This is work I will seek again. [ ]"

from her review of MiPoesías' "American Cuban" issue in LPR #2

Emily Pérez grew up in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. She earned an MFA from the University of Houston in 2006 and a work-study scholarship to Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in 2007. Her poetry has appeared in /nor, Ocho, Third Coast, Laurel Review and Borderlands, and in addition to work in Latino Poetry Review, her reviews can be found in Gulf Coast and American Letters & Commentary. She currently teaches English and creative writing in Seattle.

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Emily Pérez on:

Blas Falconer (LPR #1)

Sheryl Luna (LPR #1)

Mónica Teresa Ortiz (LPR #2)

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Palabra Pura: Tonight @ 7:30 p.m.

Emma Trelles and Jacob Saenz are the features for June's Palabra Pura.

Emma Trelles is author of, Little Spells and teaches writing workshops at the Art Center of South Florida.

Chicago's own Jacob Saenz served as editor of the Columbia Poetry Review. His poems have been published in a number of magazines including Poetry.

7:30 p.m. start time. All ages. Free admission.
Decima Musa, 1901 S. Loomis, Chicago
Limited open mic starts the evening.
Come down for dinner beforehand. The guacamole is delicious