FlowerSong Press nurtures essential verse from, about, and through out the borderlands. Literary. Lyrical. Boundless.

Fiction as the Distillation and Reconstruction of Reality: An Interview with Frederick Luis Aldama regarding The Absolutely (Almost) True Adventures of Max Rodriguez
By Daniel A. Olivas

Latino Book Review

FlowerSong Press’s Official Statement on the ongoing genocide in Gaza:

Since our founding in 2018, we at FlowerSong Press have been dedicated to upholding and nurturing essential verse from, about, and through the borderlands. As publishers who focus on uplifting marginalized voices, particularly those of Latin American origin, we recognize that the struggles of those in Latin America parallel the struggles of those in Palestine. Neither borders and walls nor religion nor skin color should not determine who is worthy of a chance at life and who is not.

FlowerSong Press reaffirms our founding commitment to being literary, lyrical, and boundless, and welcoming allies who understand and join the voices of people of color in our struggles, truths, and hopes. In doing so, we offer our unapologetic support and solidarity to the people of Gaza, and respectively, of Palestine in their struggle to liberate themselves from apartheid and occupation.

The genocide in Gaza by the Israeli military and settlers funded by the U.S. government’s full support has resulted in a different battle here at home, which is that of misinformation and censorship. As marginalized voices, we recognize the danger of silencing free speech, which calls not only for a ceasefire, but for the removal of settler-colonialism from Palestinian land. To stay silent during this time would be complicit, and we owe it to our readers and authors, but more so to our own mission, to stand unapologetically for what is right.

We have added our name to the petition Writers Against the War on Gaza, which is a collective effort of writers, editors and culture workers committed to the liberation of the Palestinian people. We ask our community to add their names, contact their representatives, participate in the peaceful boycotts, engage in direct action and protest efforts, and moreover correct the misinformation online that is being propagated by our own mainstream news outlets. As writers, this is where our power lies and we are committed to seeing it through.

Free Palestine. From Palestine to Mexico, all the walls have got to go.

En solidaridad,

FlowerSong Press

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Announcement:

FlowerSong Press is pleased to announce the Winner of the 2022 Bougainvillea Poetry Prize:

Abigail Karl-Klassen for the collection

Village Mechanics

About Village Mechanics, the judges write:

Written from a reservoir of deep experience and a keen observational eye, these poems tell us a little-known narrative of a Mennonite borderlands community. As the speakers struggle with their heritage, religious restrictions, and their place both within and apart from Mexican society, Karl-Klassen asks us to imagine what it means to be alien and to find your family in a world far from where your ancestors first took root, struggling to fit in with different overlapping communities structured upon class and gender differences, colonialism, and religion. Cowboys, apostates, mothers, narcos, and other characters appear within the complexities of this story to share their own histories. We were impressed with the authenticity of the explorations here, with the use of seemingly simple language to achieve intricate poetic motion. We were impressed with the confidence of the narrative; with both its certainty and the doubt it uncovers. We felt ourselves transported into Chihuahua and El Paso, breathing the same air and feeling the same sun as the voices in the collection.

Abigail Carl-Klassen is a writer, researcher, poet, educator, translator, and activist living in El Paso, Texas. She grew up in the oil fields of the Permian Basin alongside Old Colony Mennonite immigrants from Mexico and has worked in education, language services, community development, social science research, and agriculture in a variety of contexts across the U.S. and Latin America. She earned an MFA in Bilingual Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and taught at UTEP and EPCC. Her work has been published in English and Spanish and has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Catapult, Cimarron Review, Guernica, Willow Springs, Aster(ix), Huizache, and Kweli, among others. She has published two poetry chapbooks, A’int Country Like You (Digging Press) and Shelter Management (dancing girl press) and recordings of her oral history project, “Rebels, Exiles, and Bridge Builders: Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Campos Menonitas of Chihuahua” can be found on the Darp Stories YouTube channel.

We are also pleased to announce one Finalist who has been offered publication:

Gabriela Spears-Rico

Erandi: Sunrise Ceremony for an Illegitimate Daughter

Please join us in congratulating these poets whose collections will be published in 2023.

About the Bougainvillea Poetry Prize

The Bougainvillea Poetry Prize is awarded to a poetry collection that grapples with issues concerning the poor, workers, the underclass, financial insecurity, working conditions, inequity, precarity, and related concerns. It promotes work that illuminates, narrates, or champions the lives of working class people as they make their way through the world. The prize honors the memory of Irma (1939-2010) and Alfonso Gomez (1938-2021) of Brownsville, Texas—Mexican-Americans who raised seven children while working in such jobs as cashier, ice worker, homemaker, truck driver, migrant farmworker, painter, and custodian, among many others.