Tell Me When You Get There by Lia Rivamonte

The poems in “Tell Me When You Get There” are lyrical, beautifully crafted, and complex in their emotional weather. Like the poem “Pleats” or the powerful “Atonement, Again,” certain poems start out clean and pressed, but as they progress, they gather the mess and dirt, the blood and sweat of our lives in ways that surprise but also are real and true. I particularly love the celebration here of the Filipino American experience and how Rivamonte claims her space in American poetry.

–David Mura, A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity & Narrative Craft in Writing

How adventurous and wise Lia Rivamonte’s poetry is! Whether exploring ancestral roots in the Philippines or dreaming of becoming a dolphin, the poems embrace contractions. On one hand Rivamonte is a lush and sensual writer about locale, people, art, music, and love; on the other hand, she reminds us of difficult realities, such as the brutality of power and poverty at home and abroad. Her beautiful and capacious poem “Lullaby” moves seamlessly between intimate and global concerns, singing about loss of a mother tongue as well as the threat of warming oceans. I promise that these poems will take you places in the world and in your heart that feel both foreign and familiar.

–Margaret Hasse, Between Us

This is a book about a world that is beyond control, a world filled with thrilling, deadly, enormous moments. There’s the girl who spots a boy in his barong tagalog and wide, cunning grin and in the next instant, embarks on a dance that will beget generations. There’s the Bataan Death March survivor tending his roses, tying their errant arms to stakes. And there’s the woman who feels her child’s nails cutting into her palm as she lifts him over the railing and holds him high above the river current. This is a scary book – something life-changing, dangerous, exhilarating is just around the corner – in the next dance, on the next bridge, on the next page.

–Kirsten Dierking, Tether