The Story
Drawing from her acclaimed collections Solstice and With the River on Our Face, alongside powerful new work, PĂ©rez offers poems that confront the realities of immigration, border walls, cultural invisibility, and violence, while celebrating resilience, motherhood, and the enduring ties of family and heritage.
Writing from McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley, PĂ©rez continues the legacy of Gloria AnzaldĂșa and Chicana/Latina writers who turned la frontera into a literary ground of strength and survival. Whether she is memorializing the children of Uvalde, reflecting on the river that sustains border communities, or capturing everyday encounters in classrooms and neighborhoods, her lines of poetry are precious--each one crafted with compassion, clarity, and urgency.
With Whitmanesque scope yet firmly grounded in Mexican American identity and borderlands experience, PĂ©rez's poetry bridges the personal and the political, reminding readers of the power of words to bear witness, resist injustice, and cultivate hope. Paper america is both an introduction to one of Texas's most vital poets and a career-spanning testament to the necessity of art in difficult times.
Author: Emmy Perez
Publisher: Texas Christian University Press
Published: 03/31/2026
Pages: 113
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 9.32h x 6.37w x 0.62d
ISBN: 9780875659657
About the Author
Perez, Emmy: - Emmy PĂ©rez, the 2020 Texas Poet Laureate, is the award-winning author of With the River on Our Face and Solstice. A Chicana poet and professor based in McAllen, Texas, she has dedicated her life to uplifting the voices of the Rio Grande Valley and borderlands communities. Her work blends lyrical beauty with social witness, honoring Mexican American heritage, the landscapes of la frontera, and the lived realities of families too often rendered invisible. Frequently compared to Gloria AnzaldĂșa, Sandra Cisneros, and Langston Hughes, PĂ©rez is known for a powerful poetic voice that bridges activism and artistry.
Description
Drawing from her acclaimed collections Solstice and With the River on Our Face, alongside powerful new work, PĂ©rez offers poems that confront the realities of immigration, border walls, cultural invisibility, and violence, while celebrating resilience, motherhood, and the enduring ties of family and heritage.
Writing from McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley, PĂ©rez continues the legacy of Gloria AnzaldĂșa and Chicana/Latina writers who turned la frontera into a literary ground of strength and survival. Whether she is memorializing the children of Uvalde, reflecting on the river that sustains border communities, or capturing everyday encounters in classrooms and neighborhoods, her lines of poetry are precious--each one crafted with compassion, clarity, and urgency.
With Whitmanesque scope yet firmly grounded in Mexican American identity and borderlands experience, PĂ©rez's poetry bridges the personal and the political, reminding readers of the power of words to bear witness, resist injustice, and cultivate hope. Paper america is both an introduction to one of Texas's most vital poets and a career-spanning testament to the necessity of art in difficult times.
Author: Emmy Perez
Publisher: Texas Christian University Press
Published: 03/31/2026
Pages: 113
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 9.32h x 6.37w x 0.62d
ISBN: 9780875659657
About the Author
Perez, Emmy: - Emmy PĂ©rez, the 2020 Texas Poet Laureate, is the award-winning author of With the River on Our Face and Solstice. A Chicana poet and professor based in McAllen, Texas, she has dedicated her life to uplifting the voices of the Rio Grande Valley and borderlands communities. Her work blends lyrical beauty with social witness, honoring Mexican American heritage, the landscapes of la frontera, and the lived realities of families too often rendered invisible. Frequently compared to Gloria AnzaldĂșa, Sandra Cisneros, and Langston Hughes, PĂ©rez is known for a powerful poetic voice that bridges activism and artistry.
