F.G. Manos
F.G. Manos, vato de aquellos, MFA, Oakland based papa, poet, and theatre maker. Manos inspires and nurtures writers to move from the page to the stage. He’s taught with Youth Speaks, Chapter 510, the Oakland Public Library, San Quentin State Penitentiary, as well as prisons in England and Wales. His work has been published by the Los Angeles Poet Society Press, The Puerto Rico Review, The Acentos Review, Nomadic Press, ArtePublico Press; and featured as LoWriter of the Week selected by U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera. And has been awarded residencies by the Headlands Center for the Arts and the United Kingdom Arts Council.
Coming soon
"In his debut poetry collection, Papi's Rift F.G. Manos confronts inherited machismo not as a singular experience unique to latinos but as the rule of men. These poems offer a layered portrait of a father and a son relationship examining what it means to be a strong man and questioning why that definition is often in direct contradiction to vulnerability. These poems invite emotional presence as a symbol of strength not one of weakness. Manos challenges patriarchal standards through tender and intimate lyricism offering a critical yet compassionate lens on fatherhood and masculinity."
-Elisabet Velasquez, author of When We Make It
"These poems are ceremony. F.G. Manos’ Papi’s Rift deftly explores how to make transparent toxic masculinity, how to forgive fathers, how to reclaim humanity, how to heal."
-Tomas Moniz, author of The King of Aloe Vera
"Papi’s Rift is a look behind the smoking mirror of fatherhood and machismo; an honest account of the love and grief felt for an absent father who still walks through the author’s memory like a Chicano prince cruising a cherry painted bomb, and smooth talking the barrio as if nothing could bring him down. In a searing poetic memoir and dissection of how the system conditions us to perpetuate harm, and how some traditions continue generation after generation even against our better judgement, F.G. Manos opens his heart with verses that are impossible to ignore. “Once upon a time he was me.” These poems bleed the essence of emotional economy, packing devastating feelings into a few words, leaving the reader stunned. Like a boxer training for a big fight, the pain in these poems leads to a hard won enlightenment."
-Paul S. Flores, author of We Still Be: Poems and Performances, 2024 American Book Award Winner