Encantado

Mora transports the reader to the heart of what it means to join in a chorus of voices, a community, a town.’ – Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education

‘Encantado is a holy book. Its honest people and voices, the affecting cadence and clarity of two languages so gently well-woven, [and] the encouraging lives of compassionate humans heal our souls. Pat Mora has given us a wondrous gift.’—Naomi Shihab Nye, author of Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners

‘‘[D]eparted spirits return / to Encantado as stars, / meander / down dark streets and hallways, / peer into windows . . .’ reads the title poem in Pat Mora’s collective portrait, recalling Juan Rulfo’s Comala in Pedro Páramo. What we have, then, are indelible portraits of Lupe, Barbara, Señor Ortega, and Stella—to name a few—populating the town of Encantado, fictitious or not . . . ‘in another time, in another place’ but breathing fully in these indelible poems.’—Francisco Aragón, author of Glow of Our Sweat

Praise for Pat Mora:

‘Ms. Mora’s poems are proudly bilingual, an eloquent answer to purists who refuse to see language as something that lives and changes.’— New York Times Book Review

‘Mora celebrates the ordinary in unordinary lyrics.’—Publishers Weekly
 
‘Mora’s imagery contributes intensely to her spare and minimalist poems... [her] poems both instruct and delight.’—Texas Books in Review
 
‘[Mora’s] voice is multifaceted: tender, humorous and joyful but also profound.’—Kirkus Reviews
 
‘Mora’s radiance and exuberance are simply enchanting.’—North American Review