Vampire Burrito by Matt Mitchell

"vampire burrito is nothing if not cinematic — aware of where the light begins and what it refracts through, a work replete with contradictions, two truths held together, bitterness tangled up in empathy, sadness tangled up in defiant joy, scoffing at the preconception of mutual exclusivity, alive in its very existence, both middle fingers to the sky."

- dan campbell, vocalist of THE WONDER YEARS

"In Matt Mitchell's Vampire Burrito, the medical and discursive apparatuses of gender weaponize both the cold sediment of history and the fiery obliteration of impending apocalypse to contain or exile disruptively sexed body-subjects. The multiple consciousnesses and social contradictions trans and intersex people navigate, however, become opportunities for play as well as fury: "I am a good mother but I am an even better infertile little spitfuck," Mitchell writes in "There's a Room Where the Light Won't Find You." The speakers of these poems erect the scaffolding of a "funhouse mirror body" and shoot T into their beautiful thighs each week to learn "who will make me more man than punchline?" These poems are dispatches from a defunct bunker, radio signals reaching into distant galaxies."

- jamie hood, author of HOW TO BE A GOOD GIRL

"the neon hollywood cowboy is back with another banger. matt mitchell's vampire burrito is a book i will return to again and again — for its tenderness & love — and again for its vividly-detailed world. these poems make me feel like i'm sipping on diet coke in some town along the west virginia-ohio border."

- josé olivarez, author of PROMISES OF GOLD 

matt mitchell is an assistant music editor for Paste, and a poet, essayist, and culture critic from Northeast Ohio. Vampire Burrito is his second book of poetry. Find him on Twitter @matt_mitchell48