“Combining cultural criticism with memoir, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal’s Magical/Realism is that precious sort of essay collection—one that casts a wide lens over a vast subject matter (in this case, “Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders”) but draws insights that feel singular and provocative. Examining colonialism’s impact on imagination, untangling the threads between “fantasy” and “magical realism,” and relaying the impact of fantasy on her own healing, Villareal makes ample use of pop culture: Fans of Star Wars, Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, Kurt Cobain, and video games will be delighted (and challenged) by her brilliant analysis”

“With brilliant insight and masterful writing, Villarreal examines fantasy at close range…the magic of this collection is the elasticity and brilliance with which Villarreal is able to take critical analysis and connect it to her own experiences. A wondrous book that will change the way you think about fantasy and magic.”

“The poems of Vanessa Angélica Villarreal transport readers into a wilderness, a porous border world of dual (or multiple) identities. Visually striking, rooted in the borderlands, Beast Meridian is a fiercely feminist book that refuses easy closure and answers. The lines blaze with anger and empathy, and the craft astonishes. Beast Meridian will serve as an example of what’s possible in American poetry in the twenty-first century. In a word: gorgeous.”

“... Villarreal interlocks her story with that of other Latin@s who have already survived, or are still working through the pain of what Anzaldúa called the herida abierta, the open wound of the border. Correctly applied, Villarreal suggests by example, a red-hot poetry can cauterize such wounds.”