Lessons on Expulsion- Erika L. Sanchez-- Mini Review- UPDATED

Lessons on Expulsion by Erika L. Sánchez
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Erika L. Sanchez has become one of my new favorite Latina poets. She writes about the experience of being Latina very accurately very relatable (at least for me). She almost brings out a Sylvia Plath vibe in her poems, "Six months after contemplating suicide," and "The Poet at Fifteen." I only mention Sylvia Plath because she is my favorite poet, and if anyone reminds me of her, you best believe I will love their writing. What I loved the most about Sanchez' poetry was that the setting of the poems ranged from Mexico, the U.S., and Spain. It's wonderful to read Latina poets who include multicultural elements in their poems. Some of my favorite poems were also those of social justice, particularly "Forty-three" which I will show a peek of below with other poems that I loved.

Here is a peek of some of my favorite poems from the collection:

I would say that these are my top 3 poems of that collection. I'm still not sure in what order, but for sure her poetry is something worth reading and buying. 

Did I mention that I went to her launch party back in July? The Launch part was held at Women & Children First. She signed my book and we spoke for a little bit.  It turns out that she used to be an English 101 professor at my Alma Matter and apparently we learned that she tutored me in English when I was a Freshman. I thought all of this was a wonderful coincidence, she is Mexican-American, her parents are immigrants, and she grew up in Illinois. She was also a Fulbright Scholar! (I'm a potential Fulbright scholar- still in the application process). Basically, this encounter gave me so much hope in my career as a writer and it also gave me my new favorite poet.