“Over 100 challenging and delicious conversations in junior high and high school, enough to affect the spirit of a school year.” -- Herbert Kohl, Rethinking Schools
“The poets in this book...confront the moral crisis and desperation we witness in the gross materialism permeating our societies. With bold and simple words, they speak to us of the women and men who build hope every day.” -- Rigoberta Menchu, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
“A unique anthology...” --Booklist
“...important, recommended volume.” -- Library Journal
“Strength and integrity...unify these writers as they speak passionately on issues common to all countries.” -- Publishers Weekly
“...one volume of political poetry, though, that I would most like to wave from the ramparts this spring is Poetry Like Bread: Poets of the Political Imagination from Curbstone Press, a tribute to twenty years of that house’s single-minded dedication to the genre...These works demonstrate with eloquence that the task of poetry--and all literature--is to challenge us, to illuminate our world and our lives, to force us to examine that which we take for granted and to act in solidarity for something new, to ‘give name to the nameless so it can be thought.’” -- The Nation
“These are poems not so much of witness and survival as of defiance and resistance.” -- The Progressive
“An ambitious new anthology...The poems here are full of surprises, grand themes grounded in the painful and triumphant particulars of each poet’s life.” -- National Catholic Reporter
“[This] collection will remain as a testament to the artistry and commitment of some of the most powerful poets of the Americas.” -- Brian Henry, Richmond Times Dispatch
"...necessary reading for the revolution."—Capital Times
“Poetry, like bread, is for everyone.”
— from the poem “Like You” by Roque Dalton
Since 1975, Curbstone Press has published works by a unique group of writers: political activists, feminists, guerrilla combatants, "independistas" from several countries, as well as ordinary working people from many parts of the world -- the U.S., Latin America, Vietnam, Europe, Eastern Europe. What all these poets share is an affinity for that place “where art and politics intersect.” Unique among poetry anthologies, Poetry Like Bread contains works by poets whose imaginations are fueled by political realities. These are poets whose works are united in a desire for a world where human needs are met and justice is attainable.
Poetry Like Bread contains works by more than 30 poets whose work has been published by Curbstone Press. Some of the poets included are: Marianne Larsen (Denmark); Claribel Alegría, Alfonso Quijada Urías, and Roque Dalton (El Salvador); Otto René Castillo and Victor Montejo (Guatemala); Gioconda Belli, Leonel Rugama, Tomás Borge, Daisy Zamora, and Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua); Julia de Burgos and Clemente Soto Vélez (Puerto Rico); and Jimmy Santiago Baca, Leo Connellan, Martín Espada, Don Gordon, Joan Joffe Hall, Jack Hirschman, Juan Felipe Herrera, Devorah Major, Sarah Menefee, Margaret Randall, Luis J. Rodríguez, James Scully, and Tino Villanueva (U.S.).
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