TRANSLATIONCOVERS.png
TRANSLATIONCOVERS.png

THE BOOK OF DESTRUCTIONS

$19.95

In The Book of Destructions, Margarita Vélez Verbel dismantles the foundations of inherited power. The sacred is interrogated, the familial pedestal cracked open. Father and mother lose their mythic shine, and society emerges as a snarled, punishing knot where freedom and dignity are routinely sacrificed.

Nothing holds still here.
Pain burns clean through memory.
God mirrors the patriarchy that worships Him.

The “destruction” at the heart of this book is the deliberate breaking of the ancient rules meant to keep women obedient, invisible, and domestic.

David—the acclaimed king who felled Goliath—appears instead in his full grotesquerie: a predatory man who cloaked violence against girls in divine approval. John the Baptist—self-appointed moral sentinel—hurls “whore” at Salome’s mother while ignoring the rot within his own tradition. And in a satisfying reversal, the prophet who despised women is finally undone by a woman’s whim, a poetic justice rendered with the sharp edge this book wields so well.

Vélez Verbel’s work is not an act of destruction for its own sake. it is a necessary breaking, a blaze set to the myths that have ruled women’s bodies and lives for millennia.

In The Book of Destructions, Margarita Vélez Verbel dismantles the foundations of inherited power. The sacred is interrogated, the familial pedestal cracked open. Father and mother lose their mythic shine, and society emerges as a snarled, punishing knot where freedom and dignity are routinely sacrificed.

Nothing holds still here.
Pain burns clean through memory.
God mirrors the patriarchy that worships Him.

The “destruction” at the heart of this book is the deliberate breaking of the ancient rules meant to keep women obedient, invisible, and domestic.

David—the acclaimed king who felled Goliath—appears instead in his full grotesquerie: a predatory man who cloaked violence against girls in divine approval. John the Baptist—self-appointed moral sentinel—hurls “whore” at Salome’s mother while ignoring the rot within his own tradition. And in a satisfying reversal, the prophet who despised women is finally undone by a woman’s whim, a poetic justice rendered with the sharp edge this book wields so well.

Vélez Verbel’s work is not an act of destruction for its own sake. it is a necessary breaking, a blaze set to the myths that have ruled women’s bodies and lives for millennia.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margarita Vélez Verbel, Corozal (Sucre) es autora de los poemarios:"Los ángeles sólo bajan una vez", "Espinas y cenizas", "Del polvo y el olvido", entre otros. Voz trágica y transgresora, la de Margarita se constituye en una de las más originales en el concierto de voces de mujeres poetas del Caribe.

 

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

María Del Castillo Sucerquia , born in Barranquilla, Colombia (1997), is a bilingual poet, writer, literary agent, tutor, and translator. She has participated in numerous poetry festivals around the world and her poems have been translated into several languages ​​and published in anthologies and magazines. She is a translator and columnist for the magazines Vive Afro (Colombia), Raíz Invertida (Colombia), Cronopio (Colombia), El Golem (Mexico), Palabrerías (Mexico), Poesía UC (Venezuela), Mood Magazine (Mexico), Atunys Poetry (Belgium), among others.

 

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Douglas Cole has published six poetry collections and the novel The White Field, winner of the American Fiction Award. His work has appeared in journals such as Beloit Poetry, Fiction International, Valpariaso, The Gallway Review and Two Hawks Quarterly; as well anthologies such as Bully Anthology (Hopewell), Bindweed Anthology, and Work (Unleash Press). He contributes a regular column, “Trading Fours,” to the magazine, Jerry Jazz Musician; edits the selections of American writers for Blue Citadel, part of Read Carpet journal of international writing produced in Columbia.

 

  • Genre: Poetry

    ISBN: 978-1-963115-89-5

    Publication Date: March 31, 2026