Diamond Bars 2

by David A. Romero

The long-awaited sequel to the nationally-touring spoken word artist David A. Romero's full-length poetry debut Diamond Bars: The Street Version, Diamond Bars 2 is a novel in verse—a semi-autobiographical year-in-the-life of a poet protagonist working through grief, dealing with alcoholism, and coping with the fact that being a professional poet might not be all it's cracked up to be. Poems blend fact with fiction, serving up picaresque tales with recurring characters living out their own kind of limbo in Diamond Bar and its neighboring cities. This direct follow-up to My Name Is Romero mixes David A. Romero's trademark humor with some philosophy and soul-searching. A love letter to his hometown, Diamond Bars 2 paints vibrant portraits and landscapes of people and places known by the author; some long gone. Diamond Bars 2 features advance reviews by Rachel Khong (Real Americans: a novel), Gustavo Arellano (Orange County: A Personal History), Michael Torres (An Incomplete List of Names: Poems), John Brantingham (Life: Orange to Pear), Margaret Elysia Garcia (Graft), and gabor g. gyukics (detoxification of the body); with a foreword from the author's personal hero and mentor Kenneth Kirkeby. Cover art by Julio Labra.