Some of the Light: New and Selected Poems

(Paperback)

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25 years of writing from one of our most gifted Latinx poets, featuring work from early explorations of machismo to new meditations on life as a single father, immigrant detention, and spiritual inquiry Some of the Light gathers the first 25 years of Hernandez's award-winning poetry, offering 28 new poems and a glimpse at the trajectory of a rising contemplative American author. At its core, Some of the Light contains collected poems of love, told through the lens of a single father raising two children alone in the borderlands. They are at times intimate and confessional, ranging from personal relationships to spiritual inquiry, from human rights to the environment, while between the cracks of the poems are poetic contemplations, chronicling the passing days of the pandemic. This latest work by Hernandez reveals a writer whom former US poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera calls "a titan-unafraid to take to the road, get his hands dirty, to fully immerse himself in the world of his subjects." Some of the Light is a part of Beacon Press's Raised Voices poetry series, established in 2021 to raise historically excluded voices and perspectives, and to celebratepoetry's ability to access truths in ways no other form can.

Reviews

An indispensable primer to an accomplished poet who seems only to be getting started.
Booklist, Starred Review

A titanunafraid to take to the road, get his hands dirty, to fully immerse himself in the world of his subjects.
Juan Felipe Herrera, former US Poet Laureate

Some of the Light arrives to remind us that Hernandez has been turning over the stones, cradling them, and tumbling them in his mouth until he can taste and recite every fissure and form that must be sung. It awakens the inner light that empires, trials and tribulations, others, and even the self have attempted to extinguish and failed. Hernandez lets the light radiate, and we must follow.
Anthony Cody, author of Borderland Apocrypha

What does it mean to refract and be a refraction of the world we inhabit In Some of the Light, Tim Z. Hernandez reminds us that memory is only a confluence of our desiresto hold onto rebuild from the intimacies of loss toward a reclamation of self. He cleaves open languagewith all its gorgeous failures.
Felicia Zamora, author of Quotient

Author Bio

Tim Z. Hernandez is an award-winning author, research scholar, and performer. His work includes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and screenplays. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most notably the American Book Award, the Colorado Book Award, and the International Latino Book Award. Hernandez holds a BA from Naropa University and an MFA from Bennington College, and is an associate professor with the University of Texas at El Paso's bilingual MFA program in creative writing. He lives in El Paso, Texas, with his two children.