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Book Cover for: Brother Sleep, Aldo Amparán

Brother Sleep

Aldo Amparán

Finalist:Lambda Literary Award -Gay Poetry (2023)
Brother Sleep is a collection of grievances through which a speaker mourns the loss of a brother, grandfather, and a sense of self as they navigate a landscape of desire marred by violence against queer and Mexican people.

Set in the border cities of El Paso, TX, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, these poems navigate the liminal space between language and silence. As the poems grieve the loss of family, the violence perpetrated against queerness, the bodies lost border-side, and the cruelty against tenderness, Amparan's words bloom in evocation. Reflecting on lovers, friends, family, classmates, and others of impact, they navigate personal reconciliation in response to imposed definitions of their personhood.


These poems evoke an equal sense of sorrow and tenderness amidst a complex landscape of the self.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Alice James Books
  • Publish Date: Sep 13rd, 2022
  • Pages: 100
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.90in - 6.00in - 0.50in - 0.40lb
  • EAN: 9781948579278
  • Categories: Subjects & Themes - Death, Grief, LossLGBTQ+Subjects & Themes - Places

About the Author

Aldo Amparán is a poet, writer, & translator born & raised in the border cities of El Paso, TX, USA, & Ciudad Juárez, CH, MX. They are the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts & CantoMundo. Their work has been widely published in anthologies and literary journals including AGNI, Best New Poets, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review Online, Ploughshares, Poetry Magazine, & elsewhere. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas at El Paso.

Praise for this book

This book is a beautiful haunting. Formally inventive and alive, Aldo Amparán's first collection Brother Sleep is essential reading for anyone who's ever made it through night. The poems again and again seek definition for what can never be defined, living in the liminal space between the poet and memory. Amparàn gifts us with a clear and important voice in this queer reckoning with landscape, desire, illness, and touch. --sam sax