Pinol : Poems by Sayra Pinto
Author bio: Sayra Pinto is a poet, scholar and activist dedicated to creative change. She is the author of Vatolandia and her work was included in the indigenous anthology, I Was Indian. She has a B.A. from Middlebury College, an M.F.A. from Goddard College, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at Union Institute & University. She lives outside Washington, DC with her partner, triplet girls and two spoiled dogs.
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"Pinol : Poems by Sayra Pinto is a collection of poems that not only recreates the poet's journey from rural Honduras to the cities of the United States, but, through an ingenious structure using Mayan mythology, the book becomes an urgent archetypal journey of the human life cycle. The journey for Pinto's readers leads to a reconnection not only with a primal self, but with primal nature. In doing so, the book itself becomes a site of transformation into and reconciliation with what is most necessary to be alive in a variegated and omnicultural world. The poems in Pinol, some as short as haiku, some autobiographical, others incantations of spirit, introduce us both to characters from the poet's life, as well as figures from Native spirit life. Most importantly, these staunch, lyrical, and profound poems introduce us to a unique poetic voice from which we turn away at our own risk: we need these poems to heal the fissures that too often divide not only peoples but our individual selves." --Kenny Fries, author of Body, Remember: A Memoir and The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin's Theory
“Sayra Pinto’s Pinol is much like that mix the wise woman brings together in its title poem, transforming it into the drink that feeds the “hungry belly.” In this honest, raw, earthy, autobiographic-historic-mythic crescendo of brilliant poetry the author serves as wise woman and her mix of words feeds the hungry spirit….Reading Pinol made me remember what it was like when goddesses were not banned and wise women/witches not burned. Be prepared to fly when you enter here.” --Susan Deer Cloud, author of Braiding Starlight
"In Pinol:Poems, Sayra Pinto has written from the place of "jaguars," "snakes" and the illimitable "darkness" both centralized and deflected by the jungles of the Americas….Jungle space mixes with East European space, inner-city North American space, and the speech forms of the early colonies to produce a feminist work that foregrounds the vibration of community over the particularity of language and temperament most often associated with a lyric cycle. The reader is the figure "writh[ing] in the space between them": them: these "endless" and "innumerable" lives.” --Bhanu Kapil, author of Schizophrene
Purchase Pinol : Poems by Sayra Pinto on Amazon or Barnes and Noble
"Pinol : Poems by Sayra Pinto is a collection of poems that not only recreates the poet's journey from rural Honduras to the cities of the United States, but, through an ingenious structure using Mayan mythology, the book becomes an urgent archetypal journey of the human life cycle. The journey for Pinto's readers leads to a reconnection not only with a primal self, but with primal nature. In doing so, the book itself becomes a site of transformation into and reconciliation with what is most necessary to be alive in a variegated and omnicultural world. The poems in Pinol, some as short as haiku, some autobiographical, others incantations of spirit, introduce us both to characters from the poet's life, as well as figures from Native spirit life. Most importantly, these staunch, lyrical, and profound poems introduce us to a unique poetic voice from which we turn away at our own risk: we need these poems to heal the fissures that too often divide not only peoples but our individual selves." --Kenny Fries, author of Body, Remember: A Memoir and The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin's Theory
“Sayra Pinto’s Pinol is much like that mix the wise woman brings together in its title poem, transforming it into the drink that feeds the “hungry belly.” In this honest, raw, earthy, autobiographic-historic-mythic crescendo of brilliant poetry the author serves as wise woman and her mix of words feeds the hungry spirit….Reading Pinol made me remember what it was like when goddesses were not banned and wise women/witches not burned. Be prepared to fly when you enter here.” --Susan Deer Cloud, author of Braiding Starlight
"In Pinol:Poems, Sayra Pinto has written from the place of "jaguars," "snakes" and the illimitable "darkness" both centralized and deflected by the jungles of the Americas….Jungle space mixes with East European space, inner-city North American space, and the speech forms of the early colonies to produce a feminist work that foregrounds the vibration of community over the particularity of language and temperament most often associated with a lyric cycle. The reader is the figure "writh[ing] in the space between them": them: these "endless" and "innumerable" lives.” --Bhanu Kapil, author of Schizophrene
