April is National Poetry Month — a time to celebrate the voices of poets and the power of verse to distill emotion, experience and truth. Launched in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, the monthlong observance has become one of the world’s most significant literary celebrations. It recognizes the unique role poets play in shaping our culture.
In El Paso, poetry is deeply rooted in place. The city’s poets write across borders — of language, geography and identity — turning their attention to themes of memory, migration, justice and resilience.
The region’s poets write about language, labor, identity, violence and hope. Whether through minimalist lyricism or richly layered narrative poems, their works remind readers that El Paso is not just a place — it’s a feeling, a border-crossing, a history unfolding.
Here are some poetry collections by authors with El Paso ties worth adding to your bookshelf:
‘6 Lineage Poems’ by Fernando Trujillo
In “6 Lineage Poems,” Fernando Trujillo explores ancestry, heritage and the stories passed down through generations. Each poem unfolds like a family relic — intimate, mysterious and full of reverence. Trujillo’s voice is meditative and grounded in the rhythms of desert life, offering a reflection on what it means to belong to a lineage shaped by both cultural memory and personal experience. This 2025 collection deepens the literary landscape of the border with its quiet, powerful resonance.
‘The Moment of Your Life: Poems’ by Joseph Somoza
Veteran poet Joseph Somoza returns with “The Moment of Your Life: Poems,” a 2024 collection that dwells in the ordinary moments that make up a life — a glance, a walk, a sudden realization. His minimalist style invites readers into quiet spaces of reflection, capturing the essence of time and presence. Long connected to El Paso’s literary scene, Somoza’s work reminds us that poetry doesn’t need to shout to be profound. These are poems of clarity, stillness and gentle wisdom.
‘YOU’ by Rosa Alcalá
In “YOU,” Rosa Alcalá confronts language — how it shapes us, betrays us and holds power over our lives. The collection is steeped in questions of identity and agency, exploring the complexities of womanhood, translation and the labor of care. Alcalá, a professor of creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso, is known for her precise and cutting voice. Alcalá has published three previous books of poetry, most recently “MyOTHER TONGUE.” With roots in the Bronx and years spent on the U.S.-Mexico border, her poems often inhabit multiple geographies and identities at once.
‘The Border Simulator’ by Gabriel Dozal
Gabriel Dozal’s debut collection, “The Border Simulator,” imagines the U.S.-Mexico border as both a real and virtual space — part dystopia, part mirror. The poems follow protagonists named La Línea and El Río, surreal characters caught in an endless loop of surveillance, labor and migration. A graduate of UTEP’s bilingual master of fine arts program, Dozal blends English and Spanish with code-switching and experimental structure to explore the absurdity and violence of border politics. His voice is urgent, fresh and distinctly of this region.
‘Some of the Light’ by Tim Z. Hernandez
Part memoir, part prayer, “Some of the Light” gathers more than 20 years of Tim Z. Hernandez’s poetry into a single, luminous volume. His poems, drawn from a life lived between California’s Central Valley and the deserts of West Texas, pulse with movement, migration and memory. Hernandez, who teaches at UTEP, is a poet of people — farmworkers, mothers, lovers, ancestors — and his work is as musical as it is political. “Some of the Light” offers readers a deeply personal, border-conscious journey through place and time.
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‘Thirty Talks Weird Love’ by Alessandra Narváez Varela
Written in poetic prose, “Thirty Talks Weird Love” is a novel that blends verse and narrative to tell the story of a 13-year-old girl growing up in 1990s Ciudad Juárez. The story takes a surreal turn when she’s visited by her future 30-year-old self who offers cryptic advice about survival, love and mental health. Alessandra Narváez Varela, who teaches at UTEP, explores themes of adolescence, violence and self-worth with lyrical depth and emotional honesty. As the first selection for the El Paso Matters Book Club, this book helped set the tone for a community of readers engaged with stories rooted in the borderland.
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“Thirty Talks Weird Love,” about a 13-year-old girl in Ciudad Juárez battling depression who is visited by her future self, is a young adult novel set amid the disappearances and killings of women.
More El Paso poetry collections to check out:
- “Begging for Vultures: New and Selected Poems, 1994-2009,” by Lawrence Welsh
- “Brother Sleep,” by Aldo Amaparán
- “Confetti: Poems for Children,” by Pat Mora (1996)
- “En las praderas del fin del mundo,” by Andrea Cote (2019)
- “Flow,” by Robin Scofield (2017)
- “For Want of Water and Other Poems,” by Sasha Pimentel (2017)
- “In Few Words/En pocas palabras,” by Jose Antonio Burciaga (1996)
- “Left Hand Dharma: New and Selected Poems,” by Belinda Subraman (2018)
- “Lima :: Limón,” by Natalie Scenters-Zapico (2019)
- “Prayer Flags: Poems 2019 & 2020,” by Mónica Gómez (2021)
- “South Sun Rises,” by Valentin Sadoval (2014)
- “Subterranean,” by Richard Greenfield (2018)
- “The Last Cigarette on Earth,” by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (2017)
- “The Lost Letters of Mileva,” by M. Miranda Maloney (2019)
- “The Price of Doing Business in Mexico,” (1998) by Bobby Byrd
The post Poetry books by El Paso authors to add to your reading list appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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