"It is enthralling and frightening to live in this book of poems: wisdom is so often derived from experience, and Manuel Paul López ladles out wisdom as if from a bottomless well. . . . Spanning forty-five pages, the poems [in 'The Desert Series'] are undoubtedly López's most profound artistic statement on the need for human-to-human relations among all the peoples on the continent of the Americas." —World Literature Today"Manuel Paul López's The Yearning Feed evokes the rich, beautiful, and bizarre geocultural (and psychological) tapestry that is the California Imperial Valley. Like some enchanted reincarnation of Dante Alighieri (or Virgil), he guides his reader through the hot, sandy expanses right at the heart of the Americas. The frontier dividing and defining the United States and Mexico reaches new heights in the diverse poetic and prose portraits found in this remarkable new collection." —William Anthony Nericcio, author of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America"In this eclectic collection, López brings readers to the edge of their convictions then redraws the borders, leaving us to find our own way back home. He has an uncanny ability to drop dynamic characters into situations where they face universal moral dilemmas. These pieces are inundated with haunting landscapes of dialogue, poignant juxtapositions, deliberate capriciousness, and spontaneous humor that will immigrate into your consciousness." —Rebecca Schumejda, author of Cadillac Men