Winner of the PEN Open Book Award

“Whether we’re talking Puerto Rico or the US, the Poetry Society of America or the corner of 123rd Street and Lexington Avenue, there is no poet alive who can match the lyrical intelligence, ferocious wit and searching humanity of Willie Perdomo. Perdomo is the hurricane we all write home about.”

— Junot Díaz, author of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“Smoking Lovely, Willie Perdomo’s second volume of poetry, confirms his hard won place in American letters. Addiction, poverty, class and racial identity, love and recovery are examined with a devastating and streetwise voice, marked with irrefutable artistic integrity and craftsmanship. These poems sing, howl, and heal with a sad and searing wisdom akin to genius. Smoking Lovely is destined to become not just one of the best books of the year but of the decade.”

— Sapphire, author of Push and Black Wings & Blind Angels

“Willie Perdomo is an electric poet. His poems crackle with energy. The poet knows his beloved barrio, what to celebrate and what to condemn. He also has the courage to confront his own demons. There is raw pain in this voice, and much more: humor, irony, music, intelligence.”

— Martin Espada, author of City of Coughing and Dead Radiators and Alabanza

“Smoking Lovely sings to both the eyes and ears, placing oral and visual patterns in dramatic tension with one another. And the pleasure offered by this vibrant collection is precisely the pleasure of watching and hearing the polyphonic performance in vibrant poetic terms. “

— American Book Review