Out of California's Great Central Valley comes the bold new voice of Tim Z. Hernandez. Already an established performance poet and community activist, Hernandez presents here the powerful debut of a writer immersed in themes of love, desire, male sexuality, violence, and machismo. Skin Tax mixes the sharp, taut sounds of a performance poet with an accomplished lyricism grounded in the realities of the Valley.
From the first time I heard my friend Tim Hernandez read the poetry in Skin Tax, I knew I was hearing something unique and important. He tells us things in this book that we each need to say but may not have the words. Hernandez has found the words and through his poetry shares them.
This book could be put into many different categories and at the same time defies categorization. Tim Hernandez goes too deep and crosses too many borders to be confined to any box.
An awesome use of words to paint moving pictures...this book will change your world. My fellow award-winning writer friend wrote this volume of gems. Namaste!
I am not a poetry reader in general. Not my cup of tea. But I am a fan of Hernandez's work. This book was a treat. I thought I'd easily blow through 70 sparse pages, but I found myself mulling several stanzas. Evocative stuff, especially those stanzas that question the very idea of being a macho.