Cover Art: Erin K. Robinson
Cover & Interior Design: Alban Fischer
Paperback, 42 pages
Oct 15 2016, ISBN 978-1-936919-45-1
Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths by Elizabeth Acevedo is the first title in our BLUE NOTE EDITION Chapbook Series. A variation of our Vinyl 45s, these titles will not be limited run so enjoy and enjoy and enjoy!
About Elizabeth Acevedo
ELIZABETH ACEVEDO was born and raised in New York City and her poetry is infused with Dominican bolero and her beloved city’s tough grit. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. With over twelve years of performance experience, Acevedo has been a featured performer on BET and Mun2. She has delivered several TED Talks and graced national and internal stages including The Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts, and South Africa’s State Theatre, The Bozar in Brussels, and the National Library of Kosovo. Her poetry videos, many of which have gone viral, have been picked up by PBS, Latina Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and Upworthy. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Puerto Del Sol, Callaloo, Poet Lore, The Notre Dame Review, and others. Acevedo is a Cave Canem Fellow, Cantomundo Fellow, and participant of the Callaloo Writer’s Workshop. She is the author of two poetry collections: Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths (YesYes Books, 2016) and winner of the of the 2016 Berkshire Prize, Medusa Reads La Negra’s Palm (Tupelo Press, forthcoming), and a novel, The Poet X (HarperCollins, 2018).
Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths by Elizabeth Acevedo
Stranger Tells Me My Body Be a Temple
and so I show him where
I have stuck my fingernails
beneath this chipping paint
spat on the stained glass
used crooked backbone as scaffolding
knowing it won’t hold up a broken ceiling.
I tell him, I’ve glugged down
the church wine and given sermon.
Men flock but they never seem to come
for their spirits. If it were up to me
I’d burn this altar nightly
and dance alone in the rubble
pray that shitty pick-up line elsewhere.
Because if anything this body is the pure
holy of instinct
like closing your eyes
and guiding an earring
into long ago pierced flesh.
About Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths
Finalist, Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest, 2015
Honorable Mention, The Eric Hoffer Chapbook Award, 2017
Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths is a collection of folkloric poems centered on the historical, mythological, gendered and geographic experiences of a first generation American woman. From the border in the Dominican Republic, to the bustling streets of New York City, Acevedo considers how some bodies must walk through the world as beastly beings. How these forgotten myths be both blessing and birthright.
