SOO

SOO

Book Summary

Soo is a torrential poetic proposal that explores identity, memory, and language through the eyes of its author, Juli Mesa. Starting from the village of Soo, in Lanzarote, as a symbolic center of the world, the work builds an intimate dialogue between generations, where family conversations, everyday objects, and cultural references become vehicles for inquiring into who we are and how we transform. This book, winner of the 1st Ana Santos Payán Prize, challenges the limits of the poetic genre by expanding between orality, babble, and cultured citation, offering a rich, hybrid, and deeply moving reading.

What is it about?

Soo is a collection of poems born from the conversations between Mom and Au, where the grandmother appears as an empty body on stage and the grandfather is no longer her husband. In this lyrical universe, alien hands, plants that look like small cheeses, and houses that serve to live, work, or survive coexist. Names like María, Julia, Dolores, Delfina, Carmen, and Candelaria populate its pages, along with everyday images like the little toes of the virgin, bread in broth, and flies on the wall. The work includes poems, babbles, a reggaeton for Marianne Moore, and a quote from the American poet that questions gender and life plans. Through this collage, Juli Mesa poses fundamental questions about identity, error, and poetry itself, weaving a network of meanings that connect the personal with the universal, the rural with the literary, and memory with the language that allows us to name or flee.

Main themes

• Family memory and intergenerational transmission: the relationship with grandparents and ancestors as a structural axis of identity.
• Identity and transformation: how we become who we are through the bond with others and with the place of origin.
• Language and orality: the use of a unique, colloquial, and expanded language that takes shape in conversation and babble.
• The everyday as poetic: the reclamation of domestic objects, gestures, and spaces as lyrical matter.
• Dialogue with poetic tradition: references to Marianne Moore and Latin American poetry as a framework for creation.

Who is it recommended for?

This book is aimed at readers of contemporary poetry interested in proposals that break with the traditional molds of the genre. It is ideal for those looking for a work that integrates orality, family memory, and reflection on language from a perspective that is both intimate and expansive. It will also be attractive to those who enjoy poetry that dialogues with other artistic and cultural forms, such as reggaeton or literary citation, and for those who value formal experimentation without losing roots in the everyday.

What this book contributes

• A hybrid and torrential reading experience that expands the limits of the poetic genre.
• A deep and moving look at family memory and origin as an identity construction.
• A unique, fresh, and oral language that connects with the Latin American tradition and the avant-garde.
• A reflection on error, identity, and the meaning of poetry in the contemporary world.
• The recognition of a work awarded unanimously, endorsed by a prestigious jury.

Technical specifications

• Author: Juli Mesa
• Publisher: La Bella Varsovia
• Language: Spanish
• Theme: Poetry, Poetry by individual poets
• Collection: Poetry
• Binding: Paperback
• Publication date: November 2023
• Number of pages: 96
• Weight: 150 g

Editorial review

Soo is a work that deserves attention for its ability to integrate the intimate and the collective into a poetic language that defies conventions. Juli Mesa's proposal, awarded unanimously, stands out for its torrentiality and its fertile dialogue with Latin American poetry, offering a reading that challenges both in its content and its form. It is a book that invites rereading and promises to leave a mark on the current poetic landscape, especially among those looking for an authentic and experimental voice.