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Join us as Chicago poet Ruben Quesada reads from and discusses his latest collection, Brutal Companion, winner of the Barrow Street Editor’s Prize!Brutal Companion is a haunting and visceral collection of poems that explores themes of identity, sexuality, loss, and personal transformation. Drawing from his own experiences as a gay man, the poet delves unflinchingly into memories of desire, trauma, and self-discovery against the backdrop of an often unforgiving world. From intimate encounters and dreamlike visions to searing societal critiques, the poems paint a complex portrait of navigating life at the margins. With lyrical intensity and vivid imagery, the collection probes the brutality and beauty found in relationships with lovers, friends, family, and the self. In elegies to lost loved ones, the poet grapples with grief while celebrating the enduring power of human connection. Interwoven throughout are keen observations of a natural world that is at turns comforting and alien, a mirror for the poet’s inner landscape. Deeply sensory and evocative, Brutal Companion is a fierce meditation on survival and a testament to poetry’s ability to wrest meaning and resilience from even the darkest places.
RUBEN QUESADA is the editor of the award-winning anthology Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry. His poetry and criticism appear in The New York Times Magazine, Best American Poetry, Lambda Literary Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. His collection of poetry, Brutal Companion, is the winner of the Barrow Street Editors Prize.
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1774 2nd St, Highland Park, IL, United States, Illinois 60035
