Review: Soto, Christopher, editor. Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color.

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the review:

The Nahuatl word nepantla, as defined by Gloria Anzaldúa in This Bridge We Call Home, means tierre entre medio or “middle ground/land between” loosely rendered (Soto I). Borrowing this word from Anzaldúa’s usage, Christopher Soto founded the literary journal Nepantla in association with Lambda Literary in 2013. Soto’s interest with this journal project was in increasing visibility of the diversity in queer poetry; the Nightboat Anthology Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color has the same aim and is largely an extension of the journal (I). Poets in the 200-page anthology validate the queer of color experience in all its polyvalence; there are, however, some things lacking in Nepantla. In Soto’s same spirit of “constructive criticism” (II), because this anthology’s poet-base is an essential, vibrant, and canonically underrepresented group, some critiques of this important anthology project should be made.