Matadora - Softcover

Gambito, Sarah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 188229548X ISBN 13: 9781882295487

Publisher: Alice James Books, 2004

Synopsis

With seriocomic tone, these elliptical lyrics reveal illusions and exclusions at the heart of America’s global narrative of economic “progress,” and the attendant loss of cultural identity and memory. At the same time, Matadora challenges traditional Fillipina gender norms, beginning with the title which feminizes a word and profession traditionally masculine.

New York (Sweet and Sour Sauce)

I (Asian girl) was eating pasta with a dancer (Asian girl) last night in front of the Asian-American tirade. She quoted a book of 144,000 blank pages and she said, sometimes do you feel crazy? I was biting off my chicken. I said let’s go through an exercise.

Someone is sleeping very peacefully in a bed next to you. Who is this person?

A sculptor (from LA he said just visiting) listened to us. He said I’m working on a 50 ft. bamboo thing. He said you should come by.

“Early in Sarah Gambito’s book, we learn that ‘You cannot be in two places at once.’ In fact, the personality presented in these poems (they are personal poems; that is to say, they have their own unique and consistent personality) seems to have come from Elsewhere, on the way to Everywhere.”—Keith Waldrop

Sarah Gambito holds degrees from The University of Virginia and The Creative Writing Program at Brown University. Her poems have appeared in such journals as The Iowa Review, The Antioch Review, The New Republic, Quarterly West and Fence.

About this title

About the Author:

Sarah Gambito holds degrees from The University of Virginia and The Creative Writing Program at Brown University. Her poems have appeared in such journals as The Iowa Review, The Antioch Review, The New Republic, Quarterly West and Fence.

Review:

"The poems in Sarah Gambito's first book, matadora, are sheer juxtapositions of anything--star fish, Tagalog, frisson--and the friction very often adds a political dimension to the poetic. Lovely!"
--Kimiko Hahn

About this edition

• Publisher: Alice James Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 188229548X
• ISBN 13: 9781882295487
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80