Facundo Bernal's A Stab in the Dark (Palos de ciego) is a poetic chronicle of the struggles and joys of the Spanish-speaking community in Los Angeles and in the burgeoning border town of Mexicali during the early 1920s. Sharply satirical yet deeply empathetic, Bernal's poems are both a landmark of Chicano literature and a captivating read. Anthony Seidman's energetic translation - the first into English - preserves the prickly feel of Bernal's classic, down to the last stab. This edition also features the original Spanish text, an introduction by the prominent Mexicali writer Gabriel Trujillo Munoz, an additional introduction by critic Josh Kun, and a foreword by writer and lawyer Yxta Maya Murray.

In his biting first full-length collection in English, Tijuana poet Roberto Castillo Udiarte commiserates with Zona Norte streetwalkers, embodies the desert lizard, and maps a life lived in the dimness of the barroom -- as well as its incisive light. The poems in Smooth-Talking Dog display the counterculture influence of a wide range of influences on both sides of the border, from both the page and the rock concert stage, as hilarious and tragic as they are deadly serious. Celebrating Baja California's status outside the Mexican literary mainstream, Smooth-Talking Dog proves just how permeable the aesthetic border between the U.S. and Mexico really is.