Santa Tarantula

<p><strong>The poems in <em>Santa Tarantula</em> grant an urgent and haunting voice to the voiceless explore ancient narratives delve into Cuban history and identity and confront trauma and violence.</strong></p><p>Jordan Pérez explores the tension between fear and reprieve between hopelessness and light in her debut collection <em>Santa Tarantula</em> the tenth winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. Pérez lends voices to the forgotten: to the political dissidents gay men and religious minorities imprisoned in the forced-labor camps of 1960s Cuba; to biblical women who were deemed unworthy to name; to survivors of sexual violence who grapple with paralyzing fear and isolation.</p><p>With rich detail these poems weave together the stories of those who go unheard with family memories explore moments of unspeakable tragedy with glimpses of a life beyond the trauma and draw out what it means to be vulnerable and the strength it takes to endure. <em>Santa Tarantula</em> pushes through the darkness cataloging unspoken pain and multigenerational damage and revealing that sometimes survival is in the telling.</p>