HALF-BRED - ANTHONY SALANDY - PHYSICAL BOOK

HALF BRED - AR SALANDY

What does it mean to be “half-bred”? In his stunning poetry collection, Salandy invites readers to interrogate an unnamed society “where laws be for the damned/ Who dare to follow them”. He invites us to imagine the desert where we can thrive “beyond tribal boundaries”. Salandy leads readers through an oasis of meditations on tradition, misogyny, homophobia, and ultimately, the desire to be at home with oneself in our ancestral lands, even as their strife, cultural norms, and socio-political landscapes are in conflict with our own truths. In Half-Bred, Anthony Salandy artfully and bravely demands that we envision and call into being, a world where defined and undefined identities can be honored, even as “behind great holy architecture…faint cries can be heard”.

• Joan Kwon Glass, author of NIGHT SWIM (Diode Editions)

"If only between prayers, / If only between broken homes", writes A.R Salandy in Half-Bred, a stunning chapbook that straddles the shaky relationships between borders, home, and what it means to find love and salvation in a country with "skies brightened by a reddened moon". These gorgeous and ambitious poems masterfully critique the roles of patriarchy, anti-queerness, and violence while celebrating "deserts now groomed and golden". These poems set me on fire. 

• Noor Hindi, author of DEAR GOD. DEAR BONES. DEAR YELLOW. (Haymarket Books)
  

The poems in A.R.Salandy’s chapbook Half-Bred are breathtakingly beautiful. The reader becomes a trespasser into the poet’s realm as the words are like welcomed guests; the poet’s mixed race is othered as he feels like a foreigner in his mother’s lands, hypocrisies awakened as the sight of two men embracing was abhorrent, yet their true nature is hidden. The poet carries the burden of being seen as the sinner, as half-bred. This chapbook is a work of art...a must-read.

• Hasan Namir author of Umbilical Cord (Book*Hug Press)