Book Release: Gabirel Dozal

(No Cover | 5pm Doors, 6pm Reading) *“Gabriel Dozal’s THE BORDER SIMULATOR is a new technology altogether—one that undoes the fabrication of the border, so we may see clearly all of its violences & stories & teeth. Dozal’s poems are urgent / insurgent & will stick with me for a long time.”*

—José Olivarez, author of Promises of Gold

In Gabriel Dozal’s debut poetry collection, The Border Simulator (One World trade paperback, on sale August 15, 2023), the stories told about the U.S.-Mexico border are reflected, refracted, and redefined. Growing up in El Paso, TX, a city minutes away from Mexico, Dozal is familiar with the many contradictions of the border: it is both porous and heavily guarded, and crossing is both mundane and consequential. And Dozal has seen how modern technology has made the border hyper militarized and surveilled. In The Border Simulator, Dozal captures the border as a site where language, culture, economy, and technology collide, reimagining it as both a real place and a living simulation for those crossing it.

The Border Simulator (like the real border) was made up

of narratives that passed inspection

*El simulador de fronteras (como la verdadera frontera) fue hecho*

*de narraciones que pasaron la inspección, puertos de entrada*

The poems accompany Primitivo, who attempts to cross the border, an imaginary boundary that becomes more real and challenging as his journey progresses; and his sister, Primitiva, who lives an alternate, static life as an exploited migrant worker in la fabrica. Their journey oscillates between the harrowing and the joyful; they are both part of a machine and deeply human.

With inventive imagery, spirited wordplay, and thrilling movement, Dozal examples borders—both physical and metaphysical. He explores the interdependent relationship between crossers and customs, neither of whom can exist without the other. And at a time when society is wrestling with the possibilities of artificial intelligence and mass surveillance, Dozal interrogates how an increased reliance on technology serves to erase the humanity of those at the border.

The Border Simulator is an immersive experience; reading it feels like being dropped right into the simulation. Dozal manipulates language with dexterity, generating poems that feel surreal but somehow familiar. He weaves and knots and toys with language in way that pushes you to read and reread, finding something new every time you start again. The collection also features a dazzling side-by-side Spanish translation by Natasha Tiniacos, allowing readers to cross between languages with every page.

*You’re so close to being over the border, just get over it already*

*Estás tan cerca de superar la frontera, ya supérala de una buena vez*

**About the author**

Gabriel Dozal is from El Paso, Texas. He received his MFA in poetry from the University of Arizona. His work appears in Poetry magazine, Guernica, Bomb Magazine, The Iowa Review, The Brooklyn Rail, The Literary Review, Hunger Mountain, The Volta, Contra Viento, and more.