Brother bullet: poems, paperback/casandra lopez

Speaking to both a personal and collective loss, in Brother Bullet Casandra L pez confronts her relationships with violence, grief, guilt, and ultimately, endurance.

Revisiting the memory and lasting consequences of her brothers murder, L pez traces the course of the bullet--its trajectory, impact, wreckage--in lyrical narrative poems that are haunting and raw with emotion, yet tender and alive in revelations of light.

Drawing on migratory experiences, L pez transports the reader to the Inland Empire, Baja California, New Mexico, and Arizona to create a frame for memory, filled with imagery, through the cyclical but changing essence of sorrow.

This is paralleled with surrounding environments, our sense of belonging--on her familys porch, or in her grandfathers orange grove, or in the darkest desert.

L pezs landscapes are geographical markers and borders, connecting shared experiences and memories.

Brother Bullet tugs and pulls, drawing us into a consciousness--a story--we all bear.

About the Author: Casandra L pez is a Chicana, Cahuilla, Luise o, and Tongva writer raised in Southern California.

A CantoMundo Fellow, L pez is a founding editor of the literary journal, As/Us: A Space for Women of the World and teaches at Northwest Indian College.