Book of Provocations

Mónica Teresa Ortiz posits that the most important role of the poet is that of “provocateur, to prod the audience, to interpret a visible and invisible world, to unveil secrets through the communication of language, sound, and meaning.” Tender and radical, these poems offer an unflinching look into the present, which they see with a brutal clarity.
In fragmented lyric and explosive song, Mónica Teresa Ortiz’s poems explore catastrophe, illustrating in verse the refusal of the human spirit to submit to systems of oppression, and its undying cry for liberation. Because these are love poems, too. Singing for their beloveds, for hope, for deliverance. Singing for the afterlife, which Ortiz envisions as a queer futurity in which “Nothing matters more than halting the brutal mechanizations of colonialism."

With the Joe W. Bratcher Prize, Host Publications aims to amplify the kind of work that Joe was most passionate about—poetry that pushes the boundaries of form, art and culture, poetry that is urgent in its subject matter, poetry with a heart that beats for change.

Mónica Teresa Ortiz (they / them) is a poet, memory worker, and critic born, raised, and based in Texas.