The Cut Point

THE CUT POINT is a collection of ethically hybrid responses to the current social-political climate in the U.S. from the perspective of a New Orleans poet who is a labor and environmental strategist. By way of formal structures such as sonnets to highly experimental forms, this newest collection of Toscano's poetry (his tenth) surveys the relentless warping of civic life. Employing analytic poetic rigor, humor, and strong doses of the bathetic, Toscano pushes back on apocalypticisms to imagine forms of agency that might carry us through these rocky straights.

Poetry. Environmental Studies.

Rodrigo Toscano's previous books of poetry include The Charm & The Dread (Fence Books, 2022), Explosioin Rocks (Fence Books, 2016), Deck of Deeds (Counterpath Press, 2012), Collapsible Poetics Theater (a National Poetry Series selection), To Leveling Swerve (Krupskaya, 2004), Platform (Atelos, 2003), Partisans (O Books, 1999), and The Disparities. His poetry has appeared in over twenty anthologies, including Diasporic Avant Gardes, Best Experimental Poetry, Imagined Theatres, Dialectical Imaginaries, Earth Bound, and Best American Poetry. His poetry has been translated into French, Dutch, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Norwegian. Toscano works for the Labor Institute as a national project director strategizing around issues that involve environmental and labor culture transformation. Originally, from San Diego, and after many years in Brooklyn, he now lives in New Orleans.