FlowerSong Press

02/24/2025

In This Tender Geography the poet Cindy Williams Gutiérrez offers a series of carefully crafted meditations on love and loss. The poet remembers loved ones in a series of elegiac poems and offers a series of odes to dear ones that are still with her. These poems offer a chance to consider our own relationships, and to think about how we fashion, tug, tear, and sometimes mend the web of life as we traverse it. Love is what renders us alive, the poet argues; the fullness and ripeness of life arrives when we offer love and when we are loved in return. In a brilliant sequence titled, Remedies, William Gutierrez offers a variety of cures for as many ailments. For example, for “Forgetting the ancestors” she suggests a walk among weeping trees. And for “A broken heart” she advocates mending a split-rail fence. This book, full of inventive forms and gratitude, is a sort of remedy itself for when we need a dose of beauty. Thank You, Cindy, for your words, for the care and tenderness you have poured onto these pages.

Claudia Castro Luna

Author of Cipota Under the Moon and Killing Marias.

Washington State Poet Laureate 2018-2021.

Cover Art by Jessica Salazar McBride

In This Tender Geography the poet Cindy Williams Gutiérrez offers a series of carefully crafted meditations on love and loss. The poet remembers loved ones in a series of elegiac poems and offers a series of odes to dear ones that are still with her. These poems offer a chance to consider our

02/23/2025

FlowerSong Press is pleased to announce the Winner of the Inaugural Bougainvillea Poetry Prize:

Abigail Karl-Klassen

Village Mechanics

About Village Mechanics, the judges write:

Written from a reservoir of deep experience and a keen observational eye, these poems tell us a little-known narrative of a Mennonite borderlands community. As the speakers struggle with their heritage, religious restrictions, and their place both within and apart from Mexican society, Karl-Klassen asks us to imagine what it means to be alien and to find your family in a world far from where your ancestors first took root, struggling to fit in with different overlapping communities structured upon class and gender differences, colonialism, and religion. Cowboys, apostates, mothers, narcos, and other characters appear within the complexities of this story to share their own histories. We were impressed with the authenticity of the explorations here, with the use of seemingly simple language to achieve intricate poetic motion. We were impressed with the confidence of the narrative, with both its certainty and the doubt it uncovers. We felt ourselves transported into Chihuahua and El Paso, breathing the same air and feeling the same sun as the voices in the collection.

FlowerSong Press is pleased to announce the Winner of the Inaugural Bougainvillea Poetry Prize: Abigail Karl-Klassen Village Mechanics About Village Mechanics, the judges write: Written from a reservoir of deep experience and a keen observational eye, these poems tell us a little-known narrative

02/14/2025

My Heart is a Pomegranate/ Mi Corazón es una Granada
by Jessica Helen Lopez

This book is a collection of testimonial poems created as an act of confessionalism by the writer. It is not a pointed retribution, rather a gathering of words meant for survivalism and connection to those readers who are so inclined to participate in a type of personalized, haphazard piecemealed journey stitched by the author. It is sloppy at best, proudly unpolished, surreal to some extent and is a tapestry of truthful renditions written by a q***r/bi-sexual, fiercely feminist Xicana poeta, who also happens to be a single mother, grassroots organizer and a long-time, non-traditional teacher of creative writing. To say that these combined identities do not directly contribute to what is the culmination of this book, is to lack a truth telling that denies an honest description of these respective poems. This book is about being a p**a, cabrona, and an unapologetic bruja, but also about experiences that serve to confuse, discombobulate and incrementally provide a type of dying that is, ironically enough, a fuel for the act of living. My Heart is a Pomegranate/Mi Corazon es una Granada is a juicy little slice of fruit bleeding onto the page. It is the aftermath of a memorable hangover.

This book is a collection of testimonial poems created as an act of confessionalism by the writer. It is not a pointed retribution, rather a gathering of words meant for survivalism and connection to those readers who are so inclined to participate in a type of personalized, haphazard piecemealed jo

02/07/2025

FlowerSong Press is pleased to announce the Winner of the Inaugural Bougainvillea Poetry Prize:

Abigail Carl-Klassen

Village Mechanics

About Village Mechanics, the judges write:

Written from a reservoir of deep experience and a keen observational eye, these poems tell us a little-known narrative of a Mennonite borderlands community. As the speakers struggle with their heritage, religious restrictions, and their place both within and apart from Mexican society, Karl-Klassen asks us to imagine what it means to be alien and to find your family in a world far from where your ancestors first took root, struggling to fit in with different overlapping communities structured upon class and gender differences, colonialism, and religion. Cowboys, apostates, mothers, narcos, and other characters appear within the complexities of this story to share their own histories. We were impressed with the authenticity of the explorations here, with the use of seemingly simple language to achieve intricate poetic motion. We were impressed with the confidence of the narrative, with both its certainty and the doubt it uncovers. We felt ourselves transported into Chihuahua and El Paso, breathing the same air and feeling the same sun as the voices in the collection.

FlowerSong Press is pleased to announce the Winner of the Inaugural Bougainvillea Poetry Prize: Abigail Karl-Klassen Village Mechanics About Village Mechanics, the judges write: Written from a reservoir of deep experience and a keen observational eye, these poems tell us a little-known narrative

02/06/2025

Candlelight Bridge by Cara Lopez Lee has been selected as a Pick in Fiction in Pima County Public Library’s 2025 Southwest Books of the Year. Pima County Public Library Cara Lopez Lee

Here is a quote about the book from a panelist on the selection committee:

For inspiration, Lopez Lee drew on her own heritage and family tales. Her commitment to this story shows in the authentic details, depth and sensitivity of characterization, meticulous historical research, honed prose, and her unflinching take on the sacrifices women make to steer their families through hard times.

Get your copy today here:

In 1910, twelve-year-old Candelaria Rivera and her family fled across the Chihuahuan Desert to America to escape the rising storm of the Mexican Revolution. Meanwhile, twenty-year-old Yan Chi Wong flees the Chinese Revolution and a shattering loss, also bound for America,&

02/02/2025

We are excited to announce that we are publishing I Love Us: Q***r Voices from South Texas and the Borderlands. Edited by César L. de León and Anel Flores

Be on the lookout for this amazing collection.

I Love Us: Q***r Voices from South Texas and The Borderlands
This anthology celebrates Q***r love in all its beautiful, complex, and transformative forms. The voices within it weave a tapestry of stories, poetry, and truths reflecting the richness of q***r experiences of South Texas and the Borderlands. A necessary collection at this critical time that creates space for introspection, solidarity, and empowerment.

01/25/2025

Hot on the heels of the buzz surrounding Alaniz’s Puro Pi**he True Fictions (Brown Ink, 2023), we're thrilled to debut his latest work in our Brown Ink series, Tales of Bart.

Tales of Bart—a nod to Alexander Pushkin’s Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin—follows the scandalous exploits of “evil” translator Fruitvale Bart. Spanning Republic-era Texas, 19th-century Russia, far-future Atalanta, and 1990s Los Angeles, each vignette is tied to Bart’s provocative translations. Alaniz’s novel probes the nature of translation—faithful reproduction or creative reinvention—and explores art, colonial legacies, postmodern alienation, and the horrors of the self in dazzling, thought-provoking layers.

Brown Ink publishes books that blend text with graphics, and drawings with words across all genres: fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, autoethnography, among others. Brown Ink is dedicated to showcasing stories focused on Latinx/e/a/o experiences and identities.

Brown Ink is an imprint of FlowerSong Press.

Hot on the heels of the buzz surrounding Alaniz’s Puro Pi**he True Fictions ( FlowerSong Press, 2023), w e're thrilled to debut his latest work in our Brown Ink series, Tales of Bart . A Parisian café waiter discovers a mysterious package of documents left by a fugitive-like stranger, un

01/10/2025

Cover reveal for Megha Sood's new poetry collection, Language of the Wound is Love.

Now available for pre order here: https://www.flowersongpress.com/books/p/language-of-the-wound-is-love-poems-by-megha-sood

01/09/2025

Congratulations for making the shortlist Kathryn Silver-Hajo

The 2024 Dante Rossetti Short List is here! Well done to all these authors whose YA book advanced, and good luck as we go to the Semi-Finals!

01/04/2025

FlowerSong Press Writing Workshop Series: Spring 2025!

January The Philosophical Poem Instructor: Rodney Gomez Genre: Poetry Description: Explore and craft philosophical poems that delve into life’s big questions and meditate on deeper realities. Study examples, write your own, and receive feedback. Dates: Jan. 19,

12/28/2024

El 29 de junio de 1940, en conmemoración del sexagésimo cuarto aniversario de su fundación, el Ateneo Puertorriqueño organizó un foro público sobre los problemas de la cultura en Puerto Rico, estructurado en cinco sesiones que se desarrollaron a lo largo de dos días. Este evento reunió a un ...

12/27/2024

We are excited to announce the publication of our 30th title for 2024.

John Compton's my husband holds my hand because i may drift away & be lost forever in the vortex of a crowded store.

john compton (b. 1987) is gay poet who lives in kentucky with his husband josh and their dogs and cats. his latest full length book is "my husband holds my hand because i may drift away & be lost forever in the vortex of a crowded store" published with Flowersong Press (dec 2024); his latest chapbook is "melancholy arcadia" published with Harbor Editions (april 2024).

purchase your copy today:

my husband holds my hand because i may drift away & be lost forever in the vortex of a crowded store, by john compton is, among other things, a clear-eyed examination of the body, its hungers, desires, shames, and pains. It’s a book of desires fulfilled, thwarted, and manipulated. The poe

12/21/2024

Our Children's/YA imprint Juventud Press returns in 2025 with these two amazing titles, HEDGEHOGS a novel by Oscar Moreno and the nostalgic anthology, Toda clase de dulces: Sweets from My Childhood, edited by René Saldaña, Jr.

12/21/2024

Dead Boys Make the Best Men. By Rigel Ruel Portales

Dead Boys Make the Best Men is a daydream of masculinity, its logic and its languor. In this collection of poetry, men hold buses hostage while also fixing their son's airconditioner; boys play basketball before they die prematurely. What survives within this chapbook are their impressions, half-remembered but desperate to live a little bit longer.

Rigel Portales is a Filipino poet afraid of disappearing.

Fortunately, his works have appeared/are soon to appear on Cha, Palette Poetry, and Storm Cellar among other places. DEAD
BOYS MAKE THE BEST MEN is his first published collection of work. He's currently a poetry staffer at the Malate Literary Folio. You can find him on his Twitter account where he writes to preserve and preserves to write. Given the chance, he wants to cook dinner for all hisfriends, all their favorite dishes, altogether. He also wants many things to outlive him.

Dead Boys Make the Best Men is a daydream of masculinity, its logic and its languor. In this collection of poetry, men hold buses hostage while also fixing their son's airconditioner; boys play basketball before they die prematurely. What survives within this chapbook are their impressions, half-re