Shadow Boxer

Cossio, Martin

ISBN 13: 9798899905322

Published by Finishing Line Press, 2026

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9798899905322

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Shadow Boxer
• Publisher: Finishing Line Press
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 13: 9798899905322
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Written with a sense of urgency, Shadow Boxer is an intense, meditative, form-conscious collection of poems by a fighter who has "lived and learned," as notes award-winning author Matthew Zapruder. In eighteen poems, it delineates the author's personal fitness journey, his transformation from skinny-fat underdog to super welterweight live dog. The speaker in this book is a literal and figurative shadow boxer, a first-generation Mexican American who fights not for but with his life, as remarks New York Times best-selling author Jill Alexander Essbaum. In this debut, Cossio fights with his "sub"/substitute self to become a tenured teacher, fights to earn the nickname "Professor," to be "heard as well as seen," and seen as fit to be a father. These fight-poems will capture an audience's imagination by showcasing how one can fight for their life, "an American dream," by fighting for sport and with an underlying message that through drive, discipline, and dedication one can overcome their shadow self to reinvent themself on any stage of the world and at any stage in life.

About the Author

Martin Cossio is the son of Mexican immigrants who met in an English learners class in El Monte, California. He was born in East L.A. and grew up skateboarding and getting into trouble in San Bernardino, part of a region in Southern California referred to as the Inland Empire, or the IE. Martin has been awarded an honorable mention by Academy of American Poets and a summer residency by Sundress Academy for the Arts. His poems have been published by various journals, including The Lyric, Modern Haiku, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, and Last Stanza Poetry Journal. He was named the first national runner-up for Inlandia Institute's 2025 Hillary Gravendyk Prize. A graduate of UCR, Palm Desert's MFA program and a former poetry editor and copy editor of The Coachella Review, Martin teaches at a local high school, trains at a neighborhood gym, and lives in "the blade" with his xolo, Squintly.