I Ask the Impossible Poems

An Anchor Books Original Cherished for her passionate fiction and exuberant essays, the author hailed by Julia Alvarez as ?una storytellerde primera,? and by Barbara Kingsolver inThe Los Angeles Timesas ?impossible to resist,? returns to her first love?poetry?to reveal an unwavering commitment to social justice, and a fervent embrace of the sensual world. With the poems inI Ask the Impossible, Castillo celebrates the strength that "is a woman?buried deep in [her] heart." Whether memorializing real-life heroines who have risked their lives for humanity, spinning a lighthearted tale for her young son, or penning odes to mortals, gods, goddesses, Castillo?s poems are eloquent and rich with insight. She shares over twelve years of poetic inspiration, from her days as a writer who ?once wrote poems in a basement with no heat," through the tenderness of motherhood and bitterness of loss, to the strength of love itself, which can ?make the impossible a simple act." Radiant with keen perception, wit, and urgency, sometimes erotic, often funny, this inspiring collection sounds the unmistakable voice of a "woman on fire? / and more worthy than stone."

Ana Castillo is the author of the novels <b>Peel My Love Like an Onioin, So Far from God, The Mixquiahuala Letters</b>, and <b>Sapogonia</b>. She has written a story collection, <b>Loverboys</b>; the crtitical study Massacre of the Dreamers; the poetry collection <b>My Father Was a Toltec and Selected Poems</b>; and the children's book <b>My Daughter, My Son, the Eagle, The Dove</b>. She is the editor of the anthology <b>Goddess of the Americas: Writings on the Virgin of Guadalupe</b>, available from Vintage Espanol (<b>La diosa de las Americas</b>). Castillo has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Book Award, a Carl Sandburg Award, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in Chicago w