Praise for Guernica, revisited

“It’s the small miracles that bear the most light, allow dignity. Each of these poems is like a friend you can kick back with and talk religion, politics, sex, anything you are not supposed to speak of in polite company, and it will be all right. Each of these poems is a light. Some are irreverent and rowdy, and others bear reverence to the earth and sky. They party together. Muchas gracias Richard Vargas, for the miracle of this collection.” 

— Joy Harjo, author of She Had Some Horses, 2013 American Book Award winner for Crazy Brave: A Memoir

“Richard Vargas is one of the best Chicano poets writing today, a voice for all as he explores the predicaments of the modern world with tenderness and fury. His is a voice we can rely on as we make our way forward to that place of mystery where, despite everything, survival seems possible as we join in the poet's song.”  

— Demetria Martinez, author of Breathing Between The Lines, The Devil’s Workshop, and 2013 American Book Award winner The Block Captain’s Daughter

 “Richard Vargas's newest poetry collection, Guernica, revisited, is a palimpsest of modern-day struggles and life's most intimate beauty. The poems hum and roar like a fluid symphony where each movement's high notes hit a perfect observation of vulgarity and greed, of fear where Superman faces charges of illegality and sits with other detainees, of sweetness and nature, where the innocence of feeding a wild bird and saving a lost child are tempered by sobering words of witness.” 

— Melinda Palacio, author of How Fire Is a Story, Waiting, awarded a 2013 International Latino Book Award, and Ocotillo Dreams

About the Author

Richard Vargas was born in Compton, California, and attended schools in Compton, Lynwood, and Paramount. He earned his BA at Cal State University, Long Beach, where he studied under Gerald Locklin and Richard Lee, and received his MFA from the University of New Mexico in 2010. He edited and published five issues of The Tequila Review from 1978 to 1980. His first book, McLife, was featured on The Writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor, and a second book, American Jesus, was published by Tia Chucha Press (2007). Vargas was recipient of the 2011 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference’s Hispanic Writer Award and was on faculty at the 10th National Latino Writers Conference in 2012. Today he resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he edits and publishes The Más Tequila Review.