Birthmark (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry) - Softcover

Pineda MFA, Jon Marcelino

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809325705 ISBN 13: 9780809325702

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE 2003 CRAB ORCHARD AWARD SERIES IN POETRY OPEN COMPETITION


In Jon Pineda's debut collection Birthmark, loss takes the shape of a scar, memory the shape of a childhood, and identity the shape of a birthmark on a lover's thigh. Like water taking the form of its container, Pineda's poems swell to fill the lines of his experiences. Against the backdrop of Tidewater, Virginia's crabs and cicadas, Pineda invokes his mestizo―the Tagalog word for being half Filipino―childhood, weaving laments for a tenuous paternal relationship and the loss of a sibling. Channeling these fragmented memories into a new discovery of self, Birthmark reclaims an identity, delicate yet unrelenting, with plaintive tones marked equally by pain, reflection, and redemption.

About this title

About the Author

Jon Pineda is the author of the novel LET'S NO ONE GET HURT, winner of the 2019 Emyl Jenkins Sexton Literary Award/Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction.

His other works include his debut novel APOLOGY, winner of the 2013 Milkweed National Fiction Prize and his memoir SLEEP IN ME, a B&N Discover selection, a Library Journal "Best Books of 2010" selection, and a Publishers Weekly "Indie Sleepers" pick. His poetry collections include THE TRANSLATOR'S DIARY, winner of the 2007 Green Rose Prize for Poetry, BIRTHMARK, winner of the 2003 Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry Open Competition, and LITTLE ANODYNES, winner of the 2016 Library of Virginia Literary Award in Poetry. A member of the low-residency MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte, Jon directs the creative writing program at William & Mary.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Birthmark

After they make love, he slides down so his face rests near her waist. The light by the bed casts its nets that turn into shadows. They both fall asleep. When he wakes, he finds a small patch of birthmarks on her thigh, runs his finger over each island, a speck of light brown bundled with others to form an archipelago on her skin. For him, whose father is from the Philippines, it is the place he has never been, filled with hillsides of rice & fish, different dialects, a family he wants to touch, though something about it all is untouchable, like love, balanced between desire & longing, the way he reaches for her now, his hand pressed near this place that seems so foreign, so much a part of him that for a moment, he cannot help it, he feels whole.

Edition details

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809325705
• ISBN 13: 9780809325702
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80