The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez

Winner of the Berkshire Prize.

Formally vibrant, Iliana Rocha imagines and reimagines the deaths of the forgotten, Inocencio Rodriguez, AKA John Doe. Through multiple tellings and retellings, the author attempts to perform last rites for those who have received no ceremony. Indeed, the unceremonious deaths of the innocents and of innocence make for a poignant obsession here in a docupoetic kaleidoscope where found knowledge turns and churns into art, magnificent, devastating, and long-lasting. I am transfixed by the way that lyric and narrative are woven into this bold and elegiac tapestry that touches, not only on violent flashpoints but most essentially on the revenants that speak, long after loss, to the resounding failures of our humanity. This is an exquisite book.–from the Judge’s Citation by Oliver de la Paz

Poetry.