“An influential and prolific Cuban American journalist, fiction writer, and poet, Obejas is also an accomplished translator, and this bilingual poetry collection delivers its lyrics twice-over, appearing first primarily in English, followed by the entirety of the collection in Spanish. As a cutting-edge feminist, Obejas employs an interesting tactic to address traditionally gendered Spanish words: she replaces “-a” and “-o” endings with “-e,” which creates a nearly “gender-free” text. The result retains the author’s characteristic punchiness (an ode to artist Ana Mendieta is strikingly funny) and subtle profundity (“time is a ruined fountain, a prayer to the sea”) while displaying dexterous formal intensity. Poems trickle down the page in thin columns like sweat or tears (“don’t cry, don’t cry! / someone shouted / they were masked / so who could tell who it was”). Other poems are packed with pop culture and historical references (“The March” includes text from “The Black Panthers Ten Point Program,” “The Transfeminist Manifesto,” and the Declaration of Independence, among others). An exciting hybrid text of conjoined poetic voices. ”

“This is political poetry at its finest, reimaging gender through translation, and in pursuit of collective liberation.”

“... Obejas experiments with articles and word-endings to create a semblance of what Spanish may look like in the future. ”

“Achy Obejas’s Boomerang comes hurtling at you, maddening, sharp-edged, in wild, aerodynamic swerve across a ‘jeweled sea, flickering with caution,’ flung past limits of language, tragedy, history, to circle back through Ana Mendieta, José Martí, a synagogue in Pittsburgh . . . . There are far more than two sides to the dualities this work takes aim at with shattering skill.”

“The much-needed hope that comes with love defines these poems, shapes their lush epiphanies, their celebration of beloveds of all sorts, not just humans but also political convictions and the wide ranging geographies of various cities. These are the poems that we need so much right now as they remind us about the transformative promise that manifests when we brush up against each other and the inclusive, generous world that can come out of those moments.”