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The poems in Santa Tarantula grant an urgent and haunting voice to the voiceless, explore ancient narratives, delve into Cuban history and identity, and confront trauma and violence.
Jordan Pérez explores the tension between fear and reprieve, between hopelessness and light, in her debut collection, Santa Tarantula, the tenth winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. Pérez lends voices to the forgotten: to the political dissidents, gay men, and religious minorities imprisoned in the forced-labor camps of 1960s Cuba; to biblical women who were deemed unworthy to name; to survivors of sexual violence who grapple with paralyzing fear and isolation.
With rich detail, these poems weave together the stories of those who go unheard with family memories, explore moments of unspeakable tragedy with glimpses of a life beyond the trauma, and draw out what it means to be vulnerable and the strength it takes to endure. Santa Tarantula pushes through the darkness, cataloging unspoken pain and multigenerational damage, and revealing that, sometimes, survival is in the telling.
"Jordan B. Pérez’ Santa Tarantula considers the devastating traces of gendered violence and intergenerational trauma, grief and pain, passed on from the state’s abuse, to the family, to the child’s body. But the girl at the center of these poems is no victim crushed into oblivion. She transfigures by her own alchemy. Pérez’ poems remind us there is always life, connection, and pleasure to be made anew." —Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes, author of The Inheritance of Haunting
“In Jordan Pérez’s magnetic debut, foundational narratives—religious, girlhood—crash into each other, strike sparks that illuminate violence and tenderness. What shapes us, what disfigures us, in these poems, is yoked together with a startling imagination and language that’s precise and resonant. A memorable and powerful collection.” —Eduardo C. Corral, author of Guillotine
“Jordan Pérez lends scientific, lyrical attention to the deepest wounds within families and sexes. This fearless, economical writing haunts from the start, excavates and sings of pain and persistence.” —Sheila Maldonado, co-judge, author of that’s what you get
"Jordan Perez’s hard-driving debut finds solidarity with those run through the meat grinder of heteropatriarchy—its particular pockets and violences—and those who lifted a sabotaging instrument—or their mere selves—against that machinery. Lyrical and loud, if one were to call this book 'unflinching,' I would ask, incredulously, how they ever expected a speaker such as this to flinch." —Kyle Dargan, Books Editor for Wondaland Arts Society
Jordan Pérez works professionally in online safety and childhood sexual abuse prevention. She has an MFA in creative writing from American University and has published poetry in Cutthroat, Poetry International, Mississippi Review, and more.
Part 1. Smallmouth
Smallmouth
Twelve
Your Father Knew Many Women
The Masculinity Camps
Deadgirl
Knockout Rose
In This Story
Body
The Men
Mixed-Up Sestina
Tamar
Men Everywhere Are Setting Traps
A Desolate Woman
The Glory Has Departed
Letter to My Grandfather in April
Lot’s Daughter
Part 2. Dissent
O God of Cuba
Dissent
Santa Tarantula
Becoming Wild
Delilah
The Dream
Gomer
I Consider Violence
Jael
Wanting
New Study Say Men Who Do Dishes Are Less Likely to Kill You
Bathymetry
How to Be the Other Woman
The Woman with Wounded Hands
Chicken Heart
Crossing
Misplaced
Part 3. Gospel
Genesis
I Was Named for the River of Blessings
Upended
Pilgrimage
Asymptote
Theodore Roosevelt Island
Herding Tent Caterpillars
Rejoice
This Is What the Girl Really Wants
Things to Cling To
Liturgy
The Gospel According to the Girl
Acknowledgements