Deck of Deeds

Deck of Deeds is comprised of seventy poetic prose image captions (sans images) whose titles are inspired by the popular Latin American loteria card game. Written by a poet who logs in an average of ten thousand miles of air travel each month working as a union trainer and coordinator throughout the U.S., the "cards" reflect a dizzying array of cultural-geographic locations, each one acting as a scene-setter for highly dystopian portraits of "people" caught in a tangle of industry-specific "predicaments."

Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies.

Rodrigo Toscano's previous books of poetry include The Charm & The Dread (Fence Books, 2022), Explosion 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.