ONLINE FEATURE

Introduction

By Christopher Soto, Guest Editor     Undocumented Writers

Vertical Divider


Early in 2015, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Javier Zamora, and I founded the Undocupoets Campaign. We noticed that many first book prizes in the United States required their applicants to be U.S. citizens. We started a petition, signed by various people in the literary community, asking that undocumented poets be allowed to apply for these contests. The Undocupoets Campaign did lead to more open submission policies, but it did not put an end to discrimination against undocumented poets in many capacities. There is still work to do.

In the summer of 2015, Southern Humanities Review asked Marcelo, Javier, and me to curate works by undocumented writers for an online feature. This feature celebrates the lives and the resistance of nine undocumented writers from an array of experiences and writing styles. Throughout this feature, there is a grappling with nationhood, assimilation, separation from home and family, love and tenderness and war, resistance and survival.

I have learned so much from the undocumented communities that surround me. I have learned to center the voices of queer & trans undocupoets, black & native undocupoets. I have learned about a politic of resistance from undocupoets who prioritize the access and redistribution of resources over acceptance by the settler state. I have heard too many stories about undocupoets struggling to pay for food, transportation, and the reapplication fees for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and temporary protected status (TPS). I am so proud of the undocumented writers who are out there thriving, creating such beautifully brutal poetry. It was an honor to curate this feature with Southern Humanities Review. I hope you enjoy the work of these writers.



CHRISTOPHER SOTO (a.k.a. Loma) is a queer latinx punk poet & prison abolitionist. They were named one of “Ten Up and Coming Latinx Poets You Need to Know” by Remezcla and one of “Seven Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Artists Doing the Work” by The Offing. They founded Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color with the Lambda Literary Foundation. They cofounded The Undocupoets Campaign in 2015 and will receive a 2016 Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award. Their first chapbook, Sad Girl Poems, was published by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2016. They received an MFA in poetry from NYU and interned at the Poetry Society of America. Their work has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Originally from the Los Angeles area, they now live in Brooklyn.