Uprising / Alzamiento

Creator: Lisbeth Coiman

Title: Uprising / Alzamiento

Date: 2021

Language: English

Description: "Lisbeth Coiman is a dazzling new voice. With tender rage, she excavates what it means to love and grieve a homeland."
Ariel Gore, author of Hexing the Patriarchy: 26 Potions, Spells, and Magical Elixirs to Embolden the Resistance and F*ck Happiness.

"Lisbeth Coiman writes 'Before I was born / A pristine future / streamed down from El Ávila tributaries' in the opening of her poem 'El Guaire.' With these words and beyond, I am also taken to my point in history, the promise that we are all born into without knowing what's to come, and how we are as individuals and as a collective, forced to reckon with a past that we are killing off to chase a promise of a better future. For immigrants, this carries a bigger weight, as we are both killers of self while our selves are so often the victims of a society that wants to kill us. Coiman's collection is a deeply personal work that makes us revisit the guilts and the angers that we carry."
Chiwan Choi, author of The Yellow House

"UPRISING/ALZAMIENTO es un libro desgarrador, sincero y nostálgico. Se entremezclan los recuerdos de infancia, el exilio y los retos de la enfermedad mental. Es además un testimonio de vivir y narrar entre lenguas."
Nathalie Bouzaglo, editora de Excesos del Cuerpo, y autora de Ficción Adulterada.

"Weaving history, current events, and personal narrative, Lisbeth Coiman takes us on a vivid exploration of what it means to rise up, as a Venezuelan both within the country and from afar, as an immigrant in new lands, and as a woman in patriarchal societies. Longing and loss mix with resolve and resilience as Coiman teaches us that uprisings are never simple or painless, but that they can be beautiful and are almost always necessary on the path towards a more just world. Uprisings / Alzamiento is that 'despertador en tu mesa de noche // Una campana en tus oídos' ('clock on your beside table // ringing in your ears') we all need right now, waking us up to the urgent need to take action in the face of injustice even when-especially when-we are afraid of what might come next."
Li Yun Alvarado, author of Words or Water

About the Author

Lisbeth Coiman is a poet, educator, and cultural worker born in Venezuela. Coiman's wanderlust spirit landed her to three countries-from her birthplace to Canada, and finally the USA, where she self-published her first book, I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir (2017). Her poetry and personal essays are featured in the online publications: La Bloga, Entropy Acentos Review, Lady/Liberty/Lit, Nailed, Hip Mama Magazine, Rabid Oaks, Cultural Weekly, and Resonancias Literarias. In print media Spectrum v.16, The Altadena Literary Review, and Accolades: A Women Who Submit Anthology. An avid hiker, and teacher of English as a Second Language, Coiman lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Subject: Literature, poetry, Venezuelan literature, Lisbeth Coiman

Type: Text

Format: Printed book

Rights: External reference

Relation: "El Guaire" by Lisbeth Coiman

A bilingual poetry event in English and Spanish with four acclaimed authors whose voices brazenly reveal the injustices of corrupt governments, political exile, forced displacement, as well as unabashedly celebrate the joys and complexities of their multicultural heritage. Through their literary work, each poet explores their own personal histories, their own passionate desires, and their own journeys across the Americas. The reading features Venezuelan poets Lisbeth Coiman, author of the recently published bilingual poetry collection Uprising/Alzamiento (Finishing Line Press), and Leonora Simonovis, author of Study of the Raft, winner of the 2021 Colorado Prize for Poetry, Mexican-Salvadorian poet Iris de Anda, author of Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent (Flowersong Press), and East L.A.-born poet Olga García Echeverría, author of Falling Angels: Cuentos y Poemas (Calaca Press).

"The Influencers: Writers Talk About Who Shaped Their Work – Lisbeth Coiman", interviewed by Brian Dunlap.

Identifier: LIT0017

Collection: Poetry

Tags: Lisbeth Coiman, Literature, poetry, Venezuelan literature

Citation: Lisbeth Coiman, Uprising / Alzamiento, Finishing Line Press, 2021, accessed September 22, 2026, https://archivovenezuela.com/en/items/show/866