By Dorsía Smith Silva. CavanKerry Press, 2024.

In Inheritance of Drowning begins with the exploration of the devastating Hurricane María in Puerto Rico. Written with vivid imagery, these poems highlight the natural world, significant impact of hurricanes, and marginalization of Puerto Ricans. The collection also explores the multiple sites of oppression in the United States, especially the social and political injustices and intersections of race and violence. Dorsía Smith Silva’s powerful voice confronts the “drowning” of BIPOC communities as they are displaced, exploited, and robbed of their identities and witnesses their resistance and resilience. In this memorable debut, Smith Silva’s In Inheritance of Drowning reveals the many facets of the lives of marginalized people and environmental disasters.

Dorsía Smith Silva is the author of In Inheritance of Drowning, which was a finalist for the Whirling Prize and reviewed by Publishers Weekly. She is an eight-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Best of the Net finalist, Best New Poets nominee, and Poetry Editor at The Hopper, and Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico. Literary Hub, Poets.org, and The Los Angeles Review have published her work, and poems are forthcoming in The Ecopoetry Anthology: Volume II, The Cimarron Review, and Beloit Poetry Journal. She is the recipient of the Katharine Bakeless Nason Scholarship from Bread Loaf and Voices of Color Fellowship (Second Place) from Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. Moreover, she is the author of Good Girl (poetry micro-chapbook), editor of Latina/Chicana Mothering, and the co-editor of seven books. Dorsía Smith Silva has a Ph.D. in Caribbean Literature and Language. She is on social media @DSmithSilva.