Alba and Other Songs

Winner of the Alta California Chapbook Prize, Fred Arroyo‘s Alba and Other Songs is available in a bilingual edition. The series is edited by Emma Trelles.

This lyrical and well-crafted chapbook has the breadth and substance of a full-length collection. Focusing on the said and unsaid, in an imagistic and incantatory style, Fred Arroyo has written an honest yet tender examination of a father-son relationship. Steeped in the nature of his barrio, Arroyo’s poems trace the borders of land and body to tell a story of family, exile, and belonging: “There are no boundaries / save the lines on maps. //
There is no time / save the eye of memory.”

—Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Final Judge, Alta California Prize