Tropicalia
“Tropicalia is a collection of poems by Emma Trelles, winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. The book is a melodic union between the green insistence of the subtropics and the city ensconced within. Trelles’s language is detailed and startling, her poems infused with color and light, and the secret beauty of back alleys and parking lots is seamed to sorrow, hope, and land. Rock bands play among odes to Lorca and Chagall, and the hard news of protest and war lives among the simple pleasures of words and sky.” — University of Notre Dame Press, February 2011
” ‘Everything looks better in a poem,/or worse, depending on how much of the day you were able/to hoard’ That’s a typical flash of wisdom from a poet who is herself a hoarder of images, a beautifier of the Miami streets she lyrically documents. I love the immediacy and gusto of Tropicalia. I am thankful that it is ‘thankful to be standing/in the heat watching egrets.’ The world may not always ‘look better’ in Emma Trelles’s poems, but it is a better place for all lovers of poetry, thanks to her rich and heartfelt book.” — Campbell McGrath
“In Tropicalia, Emma Trelles gives us Miami—the flora, the fauna, the languages, the interstate. Her poems are luxurious and scrumptious, socially relevant, with oomph and sizzle. The buoyancy of her images and the poignancy of her direct language make Trelles the most exciting poet to emerge recently from the state.” — Denise Duhamel
For more info & reviews on Tropicalia, visit the book’s homepage at UNDP.
Little Spells
“With intimate and imagistic language, the start of Little Spells offers a graceful meditation on how to write a poem, drawing us into a poetry collection filled with humor and sorrow and the bright details of a hyphen-American life. Also a journalist, Emma Trelles is a Cuban-American writer accustomed to crossing cultures, and these poems wind with equal ease between a host of settings, and with a lens trained on the magic of the ordinary. Urban hamlets are painted as fables and saints and musicians offer salvation, as do intricate women, the green wilds of Florida and a spry attention to the beauty of words.”
—GOSS183 Press, October 2008
Ocho: The Travel Issue
March 2009
Edited by Emma Trelles, with poems by Steve Almond, Ed Ayres, Grace Cavalieri, Denise Duhamel, Susan Elbe, Stacey Harwood, Jen Karetnick, Michael Hettich, Jesse Millner, Nikki Moustaki, Geoffrey Philp, and Jacob Saenz. Cover art and design by Didi Menendez. Read this issue online.
MiPOesias Magazine: The American Cuban Issue
March 2008
Edited by Emma Trelles, with poems by Grisel Y. Acosta, Elisa Albo, Richard Blanco, Sandra Castillo, Adrian Castro, Suzanne Frischkorn, Mia Leonin, Achy Obejas, Kristina Martinez, Rita Maria Martinez, Caridad McCormick, Dulce Menendez, Diego Quiros, Hugo Rodriguez, Virgil Suarez, Rich Villar, and Kemel Zaldivar. Reviews by Kirk Curnutt, Michael Parker, and Julie Enszer.
Tigertail, A South Florida Poetry Annual. Volume III.
April 2005, Tigertail Productions
Edited by Emma Trelles, featuring poems by James Brock, Kathy Curtin, Andrea Dulanto, Gretchen Fletcher, Zan Gay, Jen Karetnick, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Rita Maria Martinez, Didi Menendez, Elizabeth S. Miller, Lyn Millner, Diane Mooney, Nikki Moustaki, Lana Tyehimba, George Tucker and Maxine Weaver. Cover art by Ivan Toth Depeña.
Edge Guides: Miami
December 2001, Longstreet Press
An irreverent travel guide to Miami listing arts and cultural attractions, restaurants, shopping, nightlife and more. One of a series that features Austin, New Orleans, and Atlanta.