The Drowning Book by Cristina J. Baptista
$19.99
A book of family, of daughters and mothers, of fathers and brothers, and, especially, of women defying and defiant, Cristina Baptista’s The Drowning Book compels us to consider the fragility and resilience of human experience. Singularly voiced, these poems reckon with a world where “everything is a surface preparing / to break, a first time,” and they go on to hope that, “in all breaking, something must grow.” For all the devastation Baptista conjures and confronts in these poems, she also testifies to that which makes “each of us an heir to Icarus / falling as we dream // dreaming as we fall.” Call it a fortunate fate that we might immerse ourselves in these poems: The Drowning Bookis a marvelous debut.
–Jordan Windholz, author of Other Psalms (2015, University of North Texas Press; 2014 Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry Winner)
Cristina Baptista‘s poems ripple with the most beautiful and haunting particulars. Her poems move through the world with clarity and compassion, showing us the universal joys and pains of being a human being in this raging century. The Drowning Book is a marvelous poetic achievement.
–Todd Colby, author of Splash State (2014, The Song Cave)
Description
The Drowning Book
by Cristina J. Baptista
$19.99, Full-Length, paper
978-1-63534-159-1
2017
Cristina J. Baptista is a Portuguese-American writer and educator whose work has appeared in New Millennium Writings, Adanna, DASH, The Cortland Review,Structo, Right Hand Pointing, and elsewhere. She is also a 38th Voyager—one of 85 people in the world selected to travel on the 38th Voyage of the Charles W. Morgan, an 1841 wooden whaleship that is the last remaining one in the world—as well as a documenter and poet of the Portuguese immigrant experience aboard whaleships. Cristina holds a Ph.D. in English from Fordham University and teaches in Connecticut.
Poetry Fanatic –
Baptista’s “The Drowning Book” is as introspective as it is awakening. In this vast world, which can crush us due to its sheer enormity alone, I find solace in thoughtful pieces which try to ruminate our human experience. Finally, what made this book so special to me was Baptista’s personalized yet ubiquitous approach to our human purposes. When reading, I predicted that she mixes her struggles as well as blissful moments into each piece. The compassion within her works glowed through the pages. Additionally, while Baptista’s views bloomed from experience, they were formatted to reflect the emotions of a diverse group. Her ideas, such as that we are all victims of our childlike innocence and naivety (yet these are the virtues which often singlehandedly keep us afloat), are true when applied to almost anyone. Yet, they are not so vague that their brilliance starts to lose meaning.