Return Against the Flow - by Susana Praver-Pérez (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the Juan Felipe Herrera Award bronze medal (International Latino Book Awards).

Return Against the Flow by Susana Praver-Pérez is a memoir-in-verse that travels back and forth between Puerto Rico and its diaspora, much like the island's pattern of circular migration over the years. Reflecting her personal journey across geographies and languages, Susana's poems move between English and Spanish, and capture the tempo of ambient sounds, such as drumbeats of bomba, or a black-plumed chango chirping at dawn. She unflinchingly explores the daily struggles Puerto Rico faces, while exuberantly celebrating the island's culture, its peoples, and the concept of "return". This is a voyage via words the reader will remember long after turning the last page.

About the Author

Susana Praver-Pé rez is a bilingual poet and visual artist. A former Physician Assistant and Associate Medical Director at La Clinica de la Raza in Oakland, California, Susana left medicine in 2021 after four decades of community service, to pursue her passion for poetry on a full-time basis. Her work has appeared in The Acentos Review, About Place Journal, Poets Reading the News, as well as many other journals and anthologies. Hurricanes, Love Affairs, and Other Disasters, Susana's first full-length collection of poetry, received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.