Texas Christian University Press

Paper america: New & Selected Poems gathers the poetic vision of Texas Poet Laureate Emmy Pérez, a voice rooted in the landscapes and communities of the Texas–Mexico border. Drawing from her acclaimed collections Solstice and With the River on Our Face, alongside powerful new work, Pérez offers poems that confront the realities of immigration, border walls, cultural invisibility, and violence, while celebrating resilience, motherhood, and the enduring ties of family and heritage. Writing from McAllen and the Rio Grande Valley, Pérez continues the legacy of Gloria Anzaldúa and Chicana/Latina writers who turned la frontera into a literary ground of strength and survival. Whether she is memorializing the children of Uvalde, reflecting on the river that sustains border communities, or capturing everyday encounters in classrooms and neighborhoods, her lines of poetry are precious—each one crafted with compassion, clarity, and urgency. With Whitmanesque scope yet firmly grounded in Mexican American identity and borderlands experience, Pérez’s poetry bridges the personal and the political, reminding readers of the power of words to bear witness, resist injustice, and cultivate hope. Paper america is both an introduction to one of Texas’s most vital poets and a career-spanning testament to the necessity of art in difficult times.

The Monkey on Frida’s Shoulder is an imaginative re-telling of the life of Frida Kahlo, seen through the eyes of her house pet Nat—a talking spider monkey with a taste for linguistics, haute couture, and detective novels. After fleeing the destruction of his native jungle, the orphaned monkey arrives in Mexico City in the early 20th century, where he forms an unlikely bond with spirited young Frida Kahlo. Together they roam the city streets, their mischief tinged with rebellion, as Nat pledges loyalty to Frida through devastating accidents, ideological battles, and her tempestuous marriage to Diego Rivera. But devotion has its limits. As Frida’s world grows darker and more insular, Nat is forced to confront the cost of loyalty and the need for moral clarity. His journey beyond the Casa Azul introduces readers to a pious Chihuahua, a shimmer of monarch butterflies, and the enigmatic guest Natalia Trotsky. Blending magical realism, absurdism, and Mexican history, Catherine Barrera’s debut novel reimagines one of the most iconic figures of the 20th century from an utterly original perspective. Both irreverent fable and love letter to Casa Azul, The Monkey on Frida’s Shoulder captures the blurred borders of magic, myth, and reality in a way that will resonate with fans of literary fiction, Latin American history, and Frida Kahlo’s enduring legacy.