Pre-Order Now: Earth Shattering News & Other Catastrophes Considered While Listening to the Genius of Love by Jose Padua
My husband, Jose Padua, has a second book of poem coming out in March 2027 from the Pitt Poetry series. I am not at all biased about this amazing book! ; ) Read the blurbs below to understand why you will love these poems.
Preorder through Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, University of Pittsburgh Press, etc.
“Using popular culture as a touchstone, Padua’s poems are compulsively readable daydreams. No connection is too wild as he explores the nature of time, family, and identity. Music feeds Padua’s poetic practice, which is free-ranging, covering topics from small town to big city, youthful exuberance to middle-age restraint, tranquil idylls to political violence. His neurodivergent mind (comprising Tourette’s syndrome, ADHD, OCD, and perhaps a few other conditions he does not understand) plays a big role in generating poems that are always as engaging as they are insightful and informed. “
Cover art and design by Alex Wolfe
“José Padua’s wonderful poetry conjures up a unique world where the ridiculous and profound are confused for one another. He fuses Frank O’Hara’s acerbic charm, Bukowski’s grumpy cynicism, Whitman’s long breath, Iggy Pop’s agitpop, and Roland Barthes’s poetic semiotics to evoke a voice that glides between the ecstatic mundane and catastrophic global, righteous concern and between detached bemusement, indignation, and wonderment. Highly recommended for the unwillingly disaffected—and everyone else as well. “
– bart plantenga, author of Beer Mystic
“José Padua’s funny, passionate narratives about life, love, and justice in a world that can seem like a ‘silly horror film’ combine streetwise candor with fierce aesthetic ability. ‘I’m not good at forgetting / much less forgiving,’ the poet tells us, and those two qualities inhabit the unexpurgated outbursts of the heart that give this book its riveting energy and power.”
– Terence Winch, author of That Ship Has Sailed
