In 1972, when I was in prison, there were about 250,000 people incarcerated nationally. And in the nearly fifty years since then, there are now some two and a half million people incarcerated.
In editing this special issue of the Michigan Quarterly Review, an issue on persecution, I didn’t figure I’d find the intimacy of these poems, stories, and essays.
MONCHO ALVARADO is a Latinx-queer-poet, translator, visual artist, and educator. They’ve been published in Tahoma Literary Review, Merdian, Foglifter, Poets.org, and other publications. They are a recipient of fellowships and residencies from The Helen Wurlitzer Foundation, Lambda Literary, Poets House, Troika House, the Summer Seminar
Foreword Reginald Dwayne Betts: A Requiem for Suffering Fiction Wesley Brown: Tragic Magic Gloria L. Huang: Another Escape Alberto Reyes Morgan: Salt Matthew Pitt: A Shambles Nonfiction Esmat Elhalaby: Los Angeles Intifada Randall Horton: And so, It’s Complicated Ahmed Marzouki, Translated by Nadia Benabid: Hygiene,
Through the exploration of strained body-self relationships, scientific facts, history, love, loneliness, queerness, and hate, Sala weaves together narratives that ask their readers to consider where they came from, how they are engaging with time— however wrought and distressing— and where they will return to after death.
