So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water Until It Breaks

Rigoberto Gonzalez was born in Bakersfield, California, and raised in Michoacan, Mexico, the son and grandson of migrant farm workers. Educated at the University of California at Riverside and at Davis and at Arizona State University, he was awarded a University Award from the Academy of American Poets.

"Selected by Ai for this years National Poetry Series, Gonzlez's first volume of mostly straightforward narratives with their somber ironies and death-drenched imagery rely on a multicultural appeal for their uniqueness... Many of these poems are haunted by the spirits of the dead, and the masks, dolls, and mannequins throughout the volume all focus on the departed. Gonzlez blends native lore with Catholic belief (not much of it doctrinal), and in his best work, echoes the repetition of biblical verse." - Kirkus Reviews "The poems are ... clear and cohesive ... and the stories they tell are rich with the colors, smells and exigencies of daily life in differing corners of the Mexican diaspora... Gonzlez pushes the poems forward with grim authority - 'Darkness can be so maternal:/blood spots tip down like baby heads' - and startling beauty: 'We value the chrysalis of bone/, the blue shell that brings down the sky within our reach.'" - Publishers Weekly "When a new voice as devastating as this one comes along, Latino poetry can never be the same... Gonzlez's first book is one of the most complex, lyrical, and masterful works by a young poet in years. His poems sing with exploration and renewal, their steady vision and surprising forms showing the world of farmworkers, families broken and united, and the restlessness of the poet son." - The Bloomsbury Review ADVANCE PRAISE "This book is a magnificent debut. Rigoberto Gonzlez's poems shock me-they regale with the charming particulars of death and constant loss, of a world of love, bonds between people, but no safety. Gonzlez has a sensitivity to tragedy that sounds as ancient as it does personal and immediate. His knowledge of the spirituality of working, of almost mystically odd professions, gives us stories and characters we've never encountered before. A brilliant poet of two nations, he is a treasure found."-Sandra McPherson "Gonzlez returns poetry to the natural rivers of language. His work makes us cross to the other side of experience. He opens a fresh chapter in the changing book of American poetry in a way few young writers are able to do. After reading these poems I do not want to return to where I began." - Ray Gonzalez "A poetic 'remembrance of things past,' a rare combination of beauty and craft, employed in the service of memory."-Ai