
Algarabía
The Song of Cenex, Natural Son of the Isle Alarabíyya / La Canción De Cenex, Hijo Natural De La Ínsula Alarabíyya
Graywolf · Print & ebook · September 2, 2025
A Puerto Rican trans epic that blends poetic play and speculative fiction, by a Lambda Literary Award winner Algarabía follows Cenex, a trans being who narrates his life while navigating the stories told on his behalf.
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- Who it’s for
- Cenex narrates a trans life across speculative worlds and stories told on his behalf.
- Themes
- Trans identity, Colonial literary erasure, Speculative fiction
- Genres
- LGBTQ+ Poetry, Hispanic American Poetry, Epic Poetry
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A Puerto Rican trans epic that blends poetic play and speculative fiction, by a Lambda Literary Award winner Algarabía follows Cenex, a trans being who narrates his life while navigating the stories told on his behalf. An inhabitant of a colony of Earth in a parallel universe, Cenex leads us through his years as an experimental subject, a stay in suburbia, and not-so-far-off lands as he struggles to find a name, a body, and a stable home.
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His song clashes variegated sources with work by cis writers on trans figures, referencing everything from Clueless to Taino cosmology within a single line. Algarabía inscribes an origin narrative for trans people in the face of their erasure from colonial and anti-colonial literary canons, laughing at its own survival with sharp, unserious rage. Una epopeya puertorriqueña trans que mezcla poesía y narrativa especulativa, por un ganador del Premio Lambda Algarabía sigue a Cenex, un ser trans que narra su vida retrospectivamente mientras navega por las historias contadas en su nombre. Habitante de una colonia de la Tierra en un universo paralelo, Cenex nos conduce a través de sus años como sujeto experimental, una estancia suburbana, unas tierras no tan lejanas y su lucha por encontrar un cuerpo y un hogar estables. Su canto enfrenta textos de escritores cis sobre figuras trans con una variedad de fuentes, haciendo referencia a Clueless y a la cosmología taína dentro de un mismo verso. Algarabía inscribe un mito fundacional para las personas trans frente a su exclusión de los cánones literarios coloniales y anticoloniales y se ríe de su propia supervivencia con una rabia pícara y aguda.
Cenex’s Many Sources
Cenex narrates a trans life across speculative worlds and stories told on his behalf.
Come here for
- Cenex’s search for a name, a body, and a stable home
- References ranging from Clueless to Taíno cosmology
Expect
- Poetic play blended with speculative fiction
- An origin narrative confronting trans erasure from colonial and anti-colonial canons
Where it sits
| LGBTQ+ Poetry | 68% |
|---|---|
| Epic Poetry | 43% |
| Hispanic American Poetry | 40% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Hispanic American Poetry
- Caribbean & Latin American Poetry
- Epic Poetry
- Authors
- Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
- Publisher
- Graywolf
- Published
- September 2, 2025
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Trans identity · Colonial literary erasure · Speculative fiction
- Reading lane
- Hispanic American Poetry