Carolina Hospital, in no-subconscious order, is a poet, a novelist, a professor and a lover, born in Cuba, and raised in the U.S. Eventually she earned a BA in English and a Master’s in Hispanic Literature. She has published six books, including the collection The Child of Exile: A Poetry Memoir; the novel A Little Love, under the pen name C. C. Medina; No Excuses! A Brief Survival Guide to Freshman Composition; and Chapter 6 in the collaborative New York Times bestselling novel Naked Came the Manatee. She teaches writing at Miami Dade College and lives with her husband and lover in Miami and Palm Coast, Florida. Her husband and her two daughters are also writers. They are also lovers of the surf and secluded beaches, and have traveled throughout the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States.
Part recovery journal, part portrait gallery, Key West Nights takes Hospital into uncharted territory, emotionally as well as culturally. The book confirms Hopsital’s place as a strong, distinctive voice in Latino poetry. — Gustavo Perez Firmat
Rendered with “the brushstroke of memory” Key West Nights and Other Aftershocks is a haunting, intimate journey through a landscape of loss and redemption. These poems are of abundance and mercy, shaped by the exile’s singular history, and guarded by the better angles of compassion and truth. It’s an elegant and impressive collection. —Sylvia Curbelo
From Key West Nights & Other Aftershocks
Madre de aguas
The dream spews elaborate tiles,
paladares and sobs.
Nothing is
as it’s supposed to be
wood and water
The woman reaches
for this lament that pours over her
grips earth and tape grass
beneath the river.
Are my arms dissolving into sand?
My eyes rolling black pebbles?
My breath the current?
By the Miami River
The scraggy woman with her half tainted
red hair inspects the heirloom
hallways sorting the missing furniture
wary
wary
The house molders
flanked by high risers
blinding
blinding
a garden parody
hungover pavers
cracked planters.
Inside
walls are crumbling,
tarnished pipes and rusted conduits
setting apart each room
conspiring
conspiring
She veils the light
with blanket curtains
until nightfall, when voices have quieted, she
sweeps
sweeps
sweeps
dirt from wooden planks
between the copper pipes.
Tres Abuelas Y Una Mamá: Carolina Hospital, Nicole Hospital-Medina, Holly Iglesias, Maureen Seaton
Four nationally acclaimed and emerging poets from diverse backgrounds and generations merge to create a remarkable collaboration. Carolina Hospital, Nicole Hospital-Medina, Holly Iglesias and Maureen Seaton call themselves “Tres abuelas y una mamá.” For two years these poets met once a week to tackle old and new ways of poetic experimentation. Through shared lines or shared themes, sonnets, pantoums, triptychs, and haibuns, this compilation takes on historical, civic, and domestic violence, mental health, and feminism. These masterful poems are political and existential, as well as intimate and spiritual. In an age of growing discord, this book’s transcendental force lies in its banded energy.
MYTH AMERICA
First grade ritual: the daily rosary
she runs hard and skips until the fall
bloody scrape rather than taking a knee.
She remembers the boy being forced to crawl
across the field while his papa looked away,
and her knee stinging down the hall.
She leans in, her silk sleeve against his cheek
as he in fealty — her champion, her swain —
lowers himself, back bent, demeanor meek.
She thinks: Kill me now, and hops a train
to a land where no one’s heard of chivalry
or helplessness: two sides of a fake coin.
On the gridiron he kneels, not to pray
but to jolt a nation long asleep.
She ascends without a stumble, leaps and slays.
— CH, NHM, HI, MS
FREE SHIPPING TILL 4/20/24 WITH CODE: TROUBLE24 How To Get Into Trouble is an inventive and moving poetry collection by the collaborative group Tres Abuelas y Una Mama (Carolina Hospital, Nicole Hospital-Medina, Holly Iglesias, and Maureen Seaton). This is the second collection by these nationally recognized and diverse group of poets These collaborative and solo poems use playful and thoughtful artistry to delve into themes as diverse as time, infallibility, motherhood, democracy, and love. The book demonstrates once again the strength and creativity that can emerge from a shared spirit.
HOW TO GET INTO TROUBLE will delight you in every possible wicked (and sacred) way! Tres Abuelas y Una Mamá weave their poetry magic, collaborating on poems so sly you’ll never be sure which mamá wrote which (witch?) line. Now that you’ve had your cake and eaten it too, surrender to the wiles of your foolhardy heart and go wherever she wants to go. When the poets go solo (each poem is identified by initials) you still feel the influence of the other mamás. This is a gem of a chapbook with great advice— Call upon a fairy who is yourself. You’ll find yourself reading and chuckling then wanting to write poems, too, to join in the mischievous fun.”