WFDD Book Club: Promises of Gold by Jose Olivarez

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

“How many bad lovers have gotten poems? How many crushes? No disrespect to romantic love―but what about our friends ? Those homies who are there all along―cheering for us and reminding us that love is abundant.”

In this groundbreaking collection of poems, José Olivarez explores every kind of love―self, brotherly, romantic, familial, cultural. Grappling with the contradictions of the American Dream with unflinching humanity, he lays bare the ways in which “love is complicated by forces larger than our hearts.”

Whether readers enter this collection in English or via the Spanish translation by poet David Ruano, these extraordinary poems are sure to become beloved for their illuminations of life―and love.

José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by the Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he coedited the poetry anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext. He cohosts the poetry podcast The Poetry Gods.
Event date: 
Saturday, November 18, 2023 - 11:00am to 12:00pm
Event address: 
304 S. Elm St.
Greensboro, NC 27401