We Are Axolotls: Somos Ajolotes

In the poetry transmitted through these pages poets converge, with images and dimensions that burst where the ray of light germinates, like a toasted nut that just came out of the oven. The time for aromas is propagated in spirals of names pronounced through a breakdown of love from the landscapes and the voices that edify this anthology. I hope then that the reader will dare to taste the perspectives here interweaved, of those who dared to be poets and gift us the offsprings of their existence. Now, more than ever, these seedlings can survive as antidote to the automation and assisted creativity of what we are tasked to live. What is it that is our lot to live?

- Dr. José Juan Gómez Becerra, from the Foreword

We are Axolotls: Somos Ajolotes is an edited collection of major US Latin@ poets, who have lived in the US, or worked in the US as part of the Chican@/Latin@ communities. Poets included are from the Midwest, the Northwest, the East coast and Washington DC, Texas, and the entire Southwest and West coast. Some of the countries their families represent are México, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Colombia. Some of our major poets appear in print together for the first time: Rei Berroa, Brenda Cárdenas, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, José Enrique Delmonte, Melanie Pérez Ortiz, Adela Najarro, Matt Sedillo, David Romero, Manuel Cortés Castañeda, among many others.

This anthology was edited by Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs.

Paperback, 324 pages. $20. ISBN: 978-1-105-86558-9

Forthcoming! Tentative release date in March 2026.

This book was supported by a SAGA Grant from Spokane Arts.