Nefarious
With heartfelt honesty, Emanuel Xavier’s fourth full-length poetry collection “Nefarious” welcomes the reader into the later second act of a former underage prostitute. This book captures insights into his private world; relationships, heartbreaks, life as a spoken word artist, time spent with his cat, aging. With a dose of dark humor, Xavier’s pleasure in the written word and his passion makes this an engaging collection.
“One thinks of the archaic definition of glamour as an occult enchantment, and with a connotation of visual trickery. On the page, Xavier’s enchantments are second nature to him, such that no strains show in the lines, and the spells are effortless.” —Jerome Murphy, LambdaLiterary.org
“Emanuel Xavier’s Nefarious is raw, brutal. And necessary. The harrowing and mesmerizing language in this book will cut you open, but it will also blow like a ‘breeze against your skin.'” —Eduardo C. Corral, author of Slow Lightning
“Towards the middle of Emanuel Xavier’s stunning new collection he writes, ‘My work is not so universal.’ The specifics might not be universal, but the journey Xavier examines is very human: how do we accept our past and move forward? How do we find true connection in this frightening world? The poems are raw, honest, and electric, and I wouldn’t want to live in a world without poems like these.” —Stephen S. Mills, author of He Do The Gay Man In Different Voices
“Emanuel Xavier is a brave, generous writer. He bares his bones to his readers, inviting us into his world which often isn’t pretty, yet is so startling beautiful it broke my heart — and then healed it. Though there is a lot of tough stuff here, the reader emerges full of hope, believing in life and love. This is no small feat. Time spent reading these poems is time well spent.” —Lesléa Newman, author of October Mourning: A Song For Matthew Shepard
“These poems are eloquent snapshots from a real life, full of emotion, fact, and surprise. Emanuel Xavier can take you from the brutal to the tender to the sexual to the religious in the blink of an eye–or from the prosy to the lyrical to the laugh-out-loud funny. His poems put you in touch with the whole man, his bone and gristle, heart and soul.” —Christopher Bram, author of Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America
“Brash, dark, funny-Emanuel Xavier is all these things, but more important, he is ruthlessly true, brutally kind, painfully relevant and terribly gifted.” —Trebor Healey, author of A Horse Named Sorrow
“Xavier has, once again, crafted a fiery blend of truth and triumph, as elegiac as it is electrifying.“ Out In Print
Emanuel Xavier is the author of three poetry collections and a novel. His poems and essays have appeared in numerous literary publications. In 2010, The Equality Forum named him an LGBT History Month Icon.
