Lessons on Expulsion

"This lush and formidable debut tackles difficult subjects, including Sánchez’s sense of dislocation as the daughter of undocumented Mexican immigrants. Depictions of misery are placed vibrantly alongside depictions of beauty and promise."—Radhika Jones, The New York Times

"[A] fierce, assertive debut by Erika L. Sánchez . . . The writing feels consistently authentic . . . That poem, like others, raises questions about how people define themselves, or are defined by others, and the borders they traverse, both literally and figuratively."—Elizabeth Lund, The Washington Post

"The second-person form can be both an invitation and an accusation—a simultaneous opportunity to adopt someone else’s perspective and reckon with why, perhaps, you hadn’t considered that perspective before. Some of the most powerful poems in Sánchez’s lush and formidable debut use this tactic to draw readers close to difficult subjects, including her sense of dislocation as the daughter of undocumented Mexican immigrants . . . Sánchez’s wrenching explorations of guilt and shame, grief and misogyny portray with vivid rawness the experiences of others: narcotraffickers, factory laborers and sex workers. Her depictions of misery hurt and haunt, as when she writes: 'Every day after school, the factory men yell / mamacita, / making noises like sucking / mangoes.' Placed vibrantly alongside depictions of beauty and promise, these struggles achieve a 'flamboyant despair' that is 'soft and full / of hysterical light.'”—Kathleen Rooney, The New York Times Book Review

“Every line is astonishment. Each poem, a climactic moment . . . She makes emotional connections magnetizing the body to words that reverb with sensuality. Every line can be seen, tasted, heard . . . From the dark, this diamond is Sánchez’s debut book.”—Washington Independent Review of Books

“Skillful and striking. One of my new favorite poetry collections, Lessons on Expulsion is a beautiful debut work of history, womanhood and love.”—Ms. Magazine

“This is a collection that outlasts its final page, that feeds us endless questions to ponder, that makes us want more.”—The Millions

“With lushness of phrase and dynamic displays of body and joy and despair and hurt, Sánchez’s debut collection strikes like human thunder, the air burnt in the reader’s lungs.”—Frontier Poetry

“Sánchez’s poems are spells that hide their intentions until their work is done, leaving the reader transformed.”—San Diego City Beat

"A rare one with phosphorescent night-powers & deep-fire mind tools, Erika L. Sánchez—here's her ground-crackling first poetry volume. A prize-eater."—Juan Felipe Herrera, US Poet Laureate

"Lessons on Expulsion marks the arrival of a vital new voice in American poetry. With penetrating intelligence and lyrical precision, Erika L. Sánchez makes visible the violence striking down Mexican women living on the border and interrogates the historical and the familial origins of misogyny. Her deft braiding of the beautiful and the grotesque infuses her language with a shimmering rawness and a startling immediacy. Her gaze is unflinching and feminist; it marvels and questions and testifies. Lessons on Expulsion is an uncompromising and singular debut."—Eduardo C. Corral

"Erika L. Sánchez writes with persistent care . . . Reading Sánchez's poems is like watching the world from a train, the exquisite rhythmic blend of the known and the unknown. The world remains always more than we can understand, yet suddenly, thanks to her great poetry, we are pierced by what we know."—Eileen Myles

“[A] compelling debut . . . Sánchez minces no words in challenging accepted notions of femininity, race, religion, and sexuality.”—Booklist

“Vibrant and superbly written . . . [Lessons on Expulsion] offers an exploration of what it is to live, love, and suffer on this Earth . . . Not to be missed.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Sánchez negotiates an imaginative space between oral history and journalistic reportage . . . Sánchez is as capable of intriguingly surrealist gestures . . . as of photographic depictions . . . Throughout, a sense of menace pervades all the joyfully vivid detail.”—Publishers Weekly