Q and A

Torres, Edwin

Literature & Fiction

Avon/Books

Carlito's Way

Genre Fiction

This fictional biography is based on the life of a Puerto Rican New Yorker whose ethics gets him involved with gangsters. 4 cassettes.

The Spunky Bear family travels by bus, train, and car. On board pages.

After Hours

DOUBLEDAY

This powerful, gritty, and vivid novel is the unforgettable story of Carlito Brigante, a Harlem drug dealer in the 1960s, and his rise to the top. Drug dealer, thief, and murdered, Carlito Brigante was once just another Spanish Harlem street punk with a poor boy's dream of flash and fast money -- but as he gets older he determines that it's either take or be taken, and he knows which role he intends to play. Soon he's a mob-connected professional with an easy charm, joie de vivre, stubborn pride, and hair-trigger temper. But the rules change rapidly in a sudden-death world of scams, sell-outs, and payback, where only the strongest and smartest predator can be king of the barrio. And when there's a major changing of the guard in the top echelons of the mob, Carlito will have some hard choices to make. Taut, thrilling, and a joy to read, Carlito's Way established a voice that has lost none of its vivid color or power to enthrall.

Carlito's Way: Rise to Power

United States

Grove Press/ Black Cat

Q & A

DIAL PRESS

In this vibrant reflection of sound and word, poet Edwin Torres reignites the possibilities of poetry. From poems like “Me No Habla Spic,” a rumination of life’s major moments, to “Fixative,” which exercises shifting vantage points, Torres is nimble—surfing through memory, definition, and forms of social address. In this new collection, Torres offers some signature performance pieces for the first time in print.      Ameriscopia reimagines New York City and its expansive inspirations, which for Torres capture the contradictions of America. Allusions to the Twin Towers, Coney Island hot dogs, and the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe continuously recolor the pages. But even as he makes these iconic references, Torres allows his poems to invert and refract the identities they evoke—New-Yorker-American-Latino-Dad-Performer-Boy-Writer—to invigorate poetry out of its slumber into a deep cultural urgency. Torres’s kaleidoscopic vision is borne of decades of poetic experimentation. Audiences have delighted in his spontaneous mashups of disparate topic matters; writers have studied his skilled technique at synthesizing—for example, from a mundane curbside view to an imagined conversation with artists Marcel Duchamp and Yves Tanguy.      Torres writes, “I discovered that, this world uncovered / is like the soul / of The Puerto Rican man — occupied / by the weight of his balance.” Ameriscopia is Torres’s statement on growing up and the inspirational facets that accompany his journey into fatherhood. From conversations in cars to fast-beat lullabies, Torres’s poetry taps into rhythms both distinctive and dynamic. In Ameriscopia Torres is at full force, a poet in control, a writer emboldened by the page—in flight.   

Ameriscopia (Camino del Sol)

Poetry

University of Arizona Press

This powerful, gritty, and vivid novel is the unforgettable story of Carlito Brigante, a Harlem drug dealer in the 1960s, and his rise to the top. Drug dealer, thief, and murdered, Carlito Brigante was once just another Spanish Harlem street punk with a poor boy's dream of flash and fast money -- but as he gets older he determines that it's either take or be taken, and he knows which role he intends to play. Soon he's a mob-connected professional with an easy charm, joie de vivre, stubborn pride, and hair-trigger temper. But the rules change rapidly in a sudden-death world of scams, sell-outs, and payback, where only the strongest and smartest predator can be king of the barrio. And when there's a major changing of the guard in the top echelons of the mob, Carlito will have some hard choices to make. Taut, thrilling, and a joy to read, Carlito's Way established a voice that has lost none of its vivid color or power to enthrall.

Saturday Review Press

Poetry. Latino/a Studies. This is the newest volume of poetry from the SUBPRESS COLLECTIVE, a group of poets who have pledged a portion of their income each year to support the eventual publication of all poets in the collective. Torres's poems are visually striking, using a variety of layout and design strategies, but they are equally interesting for the way seemingly-autobiographical moments filter into and through the formal fractures. And Torres does, in fact, have a wicked sense of humor-ous.

Fractured Humorous

Subpress

Poet and performer Edwin Torres’s extraordinary new book emerges in five riveting sections with a thematic undercurrent examining the body, love, journey, direction, and talk. These poems, intimate and expansive, use lyrical tone as an entry into communication, allowing experimental pieces and quiet poems to coexist. Black-and-white art illuminates the text and contributes to the lingual density while adding a figurative translation to the work. The overall sense is one of internal combustion, a sensory experience within the allegory of the human condition.

In the Function of External Circumstances

Nightboat Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Torres, Edwin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Torres, Edwin

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Torres, Edwin. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Q and A

Carlito's Way

Carlito's Way

After Hours

Carlito's Way: Rise to Power

Q & A

Ameriscopia (Camino del Sol)

Carlito's Way

Fractured Humorous

In the Function of External Circumstances