Congratulations to MFA alum Joshua Garcia (MFA ’21) whose book, Pentimento, was selected through Black Lawrence Press’s open reading period and will be published in the spring of 2024.

Garcia describes Pentimento as “a hybrid collection that peels back layers of belief, doubt, and identity to explore themes of repentance and renunciation. From an Italian word meaning ‘to repent,’ a pentimento is an instance in painting when traces of an artist’s earlier decisions or mistakes are visible through the final layer(s) of paint. Using modes of confession, ekphrasis, and biblical persona, Pentimento excavates a queerness entangled in one’s faith tradition.” Interspersed in the collection are lyric essays and lyric sequences which include photographic self-portraits.

Joshua Garcia’s poetry has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, The Georgia Review, Ninth Letter, North American Review, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the College of Charleston and was a 2021-22 Stadler Fellow at Bucknell University. He lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York.

Congratulations, Joshua!