"Martmn Espada wields his poetry like a flint, striking sparks, cutting to the bone. To read this work is to be struck breathless, and, surely, to come away changed."-Barbara Kingsolver

"[He's] one of a handful of American poets who are forging a new American language, one that tells the unwritten history of the continent, speaks truth to power, and sings songs of selves we can no longer silence. His ambition and his achievement remind us of Whitman, where it all begins."-Russell Banks

Martmn Espada is the recipient of an American Book Award for "Imagine the Angels of Bread, also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His other honors include the PEN/Revson Fellowship and the Paterson Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in "The New York Times, "Harper's, "The Nation and"The Best American Poetry. A professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Espada averages 40 performances a year across the country.