Anger is a Gift

Review: Anger is a Gift: An Anthology of Resistance and Response Poems to the 2024 Election. Eds. Adrian Ernesto Cepeda and Edward Vidaurre. McAllen, TX: 2026.

Margaret Elysia Garcia

After the 2024 election, poet Adrian Ernesto Cepeda was really feeling it. Not unlike most of us, he felt (and still feels like) the country disregarded what was obvious to him and most of us—that immigrants, that Latinas Latinos and Chicanas Chicanos would have targets on our backs. 

That target would be coated in misplaced tropes and stereotypes and scapegoating and as we have seen too much lately, it does not matter whether one is documented or undocumented—ICE and the Trump Administration is out for blood, our blood.

It’s enough to make us more than angry. It is in this political climate that Flowersong Press’ newest anthology Anger is a Gift was born. 

But Anger is a Gift really started as an idea between Adrian and a Costa Rican poet friend of his. They often shared their work with each other. Adrian shared the first poem in the anthology that he penned himself and his friend was blown away.  His friend told him that all these reactions to the new administration need to be in a book.

Adrian hadn’t edited a book of poems, but the drive and motivation were there. He thought about publishers he’d worked with in the past and approached some. No one was really into it, or perhaps, did not see the critical angle a book like this would have in these times. Adrian contacted Edward Vidaurre, publisher at Flowersong Press in Texas.  Vidaurre had Adrian draft a proposal and Edward loved the idea. What stood out to Edward Vidaurre was that the proposal “wasn’t trying to define anger” but rather, it was inviting people into the anger.

“We live in a time where everyone is told to calm down, move on, forgive, be civil. But for a lot of people, anger isn't something they choose. It's a response to injustice, loss, racism, violence, silence, or simply not being heard. Adrian understood that,” said Edward. After reading the initial draft, Vidaurre felt like the content was less about being angry and more about being human. He liked that.

Adrian’s concentration as an editor was to find distinct shorter pieces. And even though he chose to put the poets in alphabetical order, he made sure each piece sang to the piece it was next to in the collection.

“After reading the first draft, I realized this wasn't going to be a book about being angry. It was going to be a book about being human. And no two writers’ responses to the theme of anger arrived the same way,” said Edward.

“Some pieces are loud. Some are quiet. Some are deeply personal while others speak to what's happening in the world around us. I don't think there's one poem that carries the book. I think it's the conversation between all of them that makes the anthology work,” said publisher Vidaurre.

Adrian Cepeda sees the book having potential on college campuses, “this is something that will open up a dialogue.” His wife, who is an adjunct professor, suggested the critical discussion questions at the back of the anthology in hopes the book will be read and used by colleges and universities.

Cepeda also has a poem at the end that takes that anger and turns it into hopefulness. He liked the idea of a rose being the symbol of resistance, and like a 90s CD, it’s that extra song at the end that quietly defines the rest of the music.

Adrian was also going for a more universal appeal and approach to the anthology. Anger against the current political establishment of course, but also more than that. He wanted people to pick it up in any part of the Americas in any year and relate to it. A Macondo, if you will.

“As a publisher, that's always what I'm looking for. Not just strong individual pieces, but work that begins talking to the piece before it, and the piece after it. The anthology became something larger than any one writer could have created alone,” said Edward Vidaurre, the publisher.

FlowerSong has published several anthologies over the years, and publisher Edward Vidaurre loves them. “A single-author collection lets you spend time inside one person's imagination. An anthology lets you witness a community thinking together. I think both are equally important and necessary,” Edward said. He felt the press will always be open to publishing anthologies when “there's a conversation that needs to happen.”

“I’ve always believed books can create conversations that might not happen otherwise. My hope is that readers don't come away agreeing with every piece. I hope they come away thinking. Feeling. Sitting with ideas that maybe make them a little uncomfortable. That's what good literature has always done.”

Anger is a Gift can be ordered directly from Flowersong Press (link), Libromobile (link), and your local indie bookseller. Priced to move at $17.00, Flowersong Press offers a three-payment deal to acquire Anger is a Gift, details at the publisher's website (click).