These (chap) Books Will Change Your Life - What I'm On by Luis Humberto Valadez and Redneck Poems by Rusty Barnes.
Travel. Read. Repeat. Done. When we were running through the handful of books we hadn't quite gotten to at the end of 2010, we were clearly in novel mode and completely neglected the chapbooks staring us right in the face. We are happy to rectify that now however, as we have had the chance to consume both What I'm On by Luis Humberto Valadez and Redneck Poems by Rusty Barnes, two collections of poems that on the one hand are so completely about place, Chicago and Appalachia respectively, and the language and people who comprise that place, and yet are still intertwined around the themes of violence and women and religion and identity, though with identity, they also find themselves going their separate ways, as Valadez is endlessly searching for how it is one finds their identity, by peeling, always peeling away the layers and muck that gets in the way as it becomes encrusted on a life and Barnes exploration of identity is one of celebration, and recognition, for an identity under appreciated and under represented across the indie and literary world, that of rural, even redneck lives.
Travel. Read. Repeat. Done. When we were running through the handful of books we hadn't quite gotten to at the end of 2010, we were clearly in novel mode and completely neglected the chapbooks staring us right in the face. We are happy to rectify that now however, as we have had the chance to consume both What I'm On by Luis Humberto Valadez and Redneck Poems by Rusty Barnes, two collections of poems that on the one hand are so completely about place, Chicago and Appalachia respectively, and the language and people who comprise that place, and yet are still intertwined around the themes of violence and women and religion and identity, though with identity, they also find themselves going their separate ways, as Valadez is endlessly searching for how it is one finds their identity, by peeling, always peeling away the layers and muck that gets in the way as it becomes encrusted on a life and Barnes exploration of identity is one of celebration, and recognition, for an identity under appreciated and under represented across the indie and literary world, that of rural, even redneck lives. 
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