Justin Rovillos Monson

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Articles

Nazar Boy

Jun 11, 2024 | haymarketbooks.org | Tarik Dobbs |Mohammed El-Kurd |Noor Hindi |Justin Rovillos Monson

From one of the most imaginative and radical voices in contemporary poetry, a debut collection of fierce tenderness, political acuity, and powerful lyricism. Tarik Dobbs’s work explores surveillance, queerness, disability, race, and working-class identity in post-9/11 America. As an Arab American writer, Dobbs is achingly familiar with the power dynamics, violence, and capitalistic undercurrents woven through the language of the colonizer.
Leslie Cheung in A Chinese Ghost Story

May 28, 2024 | theoffingmag.com | Joshua T. Nguyen |Jessica Abughattas |Justin Rovillos Monson

I once heard the poet Trương Trần before reading a poem about Walt Whitman say something like, It’sone thing to be in love with Walt Whitman; it’s another thing to want to fuck Walt Whitman. I fall justshort of being in love with Leslie Cheung. Like love love — the way you want someone to love love youback and you’d be happy together. Like happy happy — the way young-love emotion plus aestheteequals adventuring.
American Lục Bát Sonnet For Extracting Your Mother’s Gray Hairs

May 24, 2024 | theoffingmag.com | Joshua T. Nguyen |Jessica Abughattas |Justin Rovillos Monson

Remember first to prythe root. Grab the entire poreof lineage beforethe pull. Me on the floor, you stomachfirst at the bed baseover my head, your hands tweezer,your fingers comb. If wewither, like follicles, we remainas ash on the scalp again& again & again as longas Chinatown salonsstay open during lone Christmas Eves& hurricane tragedy. Your windwill carry my strand within.
Infinity for Marxists

Apr 22, 2024 | haymarketbooks.org | Christopher Nealon |Mohammed El-Kurd |Maya Marshall |Justin Rovillos Monson

Breaking from half a century of postmodernist readings of poetry, and bypassing the false divide between formalist and historicist criticism, these essays chart a path toward a new Marxist poetics.
American Inmate By Justin Rovillos Monson — Notes From The Pen

Mar 27, 2024 | notesfromthepen.com | Justin Rovillos Monson

Bobby loves it when there are other inmates whose talent can soar to heights beyond the razor wires, and Justin’s creativity has reached far beyond the prison walls. Whenever possible we share with the outside world a piece of what life in American prisons are like, and Justin’s book is an integral part of that. Listen to what Bobby has to say:
American Inmate

Feb 17, 2024 | haymarketbooks.org | Justin Rovillos Monson

A rigorous and defiant collection that subverts contemporary discourse and representations of incarceration, of hip-hop, and of Asian American culture and literature. Justin Rovillos Monson’s poetic voice is sharp and irreverent—improvisational yet thoughtful, musical, and tender, achieving a range of lyrical registers woven seamlessly throughout the book from the first to last poem.
Review: American Inmate | Poetry Foundation

Jan 30, 2024 | poetryfoundation.org | Justin Rovillos Monson |Sylee Gore

American Inmate is serenade and prayer book, confession and caution. These types of speech acts presume—and require—a listener to operate. Justin Rovillos Monson’s gift is to write poems angled both to his intimate listener and his unknown reader. He writes, “LANGUAGE CANNOT ANSWER what we ask of ourselves when we are alone. I’ve damaged people.