Grading RubricTrauma is weighted as follows:Formal Essays (55-65%) Write “Children of Immigrants” – 10% (doubled if undocumented) Write “first generation” – 15% Mention the color of the coyote’s van – 10% Keep family in the past tense – 5% Write birthplace next to its murder per capita rate – 20%In-Class (35%) Don’t correct them when they say your name wrong – 5% Go by Tony starting sophomore year – 10% Stay quiet when they make fun of Keisha – 5% Believe Tim when he says, “You just got in because you’re” – 10% When it’s your turn to read, pronounce it like they do, gwa-da-mala – 5%Participation (10%) Turn to the person next to you: debate your belonging PrimariaBecause when Tío first cried,I was already a man.Porque aquí, lo que gana unodiario, es un mes en México.Because when his family leftand he had to stay,we numbed our lipswith Fruit Loops.Because when homeboys bent downto tie their shoes, one of usmade a slurping sound.Because Christian wore his shortsa little too tight.Because we all thought Mr. Fitchwas just being friendly to the girls.Because Mrs. Fitch changedher last name.Because in Disney movies,we’re always Chihuahuas.Because when Darius and I dapped—plum elbows shot upfrom his shirt—my chest flushed.Because childhood was womentrying on tacones.Because Vane laughed when I said,the yellow pair looks cute. Magical Forrealism: To read of the ghoststhat haunted Macondo.And see Moises’ headstapled to a telephone pole.His moms in a white scarfhanding out flyers to the fatpaleteros stalked outside McNair. Discuple señor,pero has visto- But hejust counts singles.The boys whose hipsare already swollenwith dead presidentsand cold metal—the only children he’s seen.Root: To take “Literatureof Latin America.” And learnyou’re Moises, still missingfrom the syllabus. You askthese white novelistas,and where am I? No answerbut an essay where Octaviocalls you, a tangle of contradictions.First Known Use, 7th Grade: Ms. Nelson told the Mexican kids to stop speaking Spanish, so I decided to live in the mouths of Devonte, Michael, and the other black boys. Each mouth a sanctuary city to hide from detention. At recess, the black top sweltered with ciphers. Lips like purple spigots leaked the hooks from their Nokias. They beat their chests, taut drums that must’ve nursed beats from the studio apartments where knuckles met flesh. I recited their bars, each word curved as it left me— like exit wounds.Born and raised in the East Palo Alto, CA Antonio López received his B.A. in Global Cultural Studies and African & African-American studies from Duke University. He’s received scholarships to attend the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, the Home School, Tin House Summer Workshop, the Key West Literary Seminar, and the Vermont Studio Center. He is a proud member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, a CantoMundo Fellow, and a 2019 Adroit Summer Mentor. His nonfiction has been featured or is forthcoming in PEN/America, The Latino Book Review, and Insider Higher Education, and his poetry in BOAAT, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Adroit Journal, Puerto del Sol, Huizache, Tin House and elsewhere. He was runner up for the inaugural Palette Poetry Spotlight Award of 2019 and the recipient of the 2019 Katherine Bakeless Nelson Award in Poetry for the 2019 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. He received his Masters in Fine Arts (poetry) at Rutgers-Newark. As a 2018 Marshall Scholar, he is currently pursuing a Masters in Philosophy in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford, where he is also poetry editor of the Oxford Review of Books. His debut collection, Gentefication, is the winner of the 2019 Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry, and is set to be published fall of 2021.

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Current Issue: 55.1, Spring 2020