Up Jump the Boogie [Paperback]

John Murillo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 2010

Poetry. African American Studies. Latino/Latina Studies. "Up jumps the boogie. That's almost all one needs to say. Murillo is headbreakingly brilliant. I didn't have a favorite poet for this year: Now I do. But with this kind of verve and intelligence and ferocity Murillo just might be a favorite for many years to come."—Junot Diaz

Editorial Reviews

Review

The feel of now lives in John Murillo's UP JUMP THE BOOGIE, but it's tempered by bows to the tradition of soulful music and oral poetry. The lived dimensions embodied in this collection say that here's an earned street knowledge and a measured intellectual inquiry that dare to live side by side, in one unique voice. The pages of UP JUMP THE BOOGIE breathe and sing; the tributes and cultural nods are heartfelt, and in these honest poems no one gets off the hook. --Yusef Komunyakaa

About the Author

John Murillo is the current Jay C.and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. A graduate of New York University's MFA program in creative writing, he has also received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Cave Canem, and the New York Times. He is a two-time Larry Neal Writers' Award winner and the inaugural Elma P. Stuckey Visiting Emerging Poet-in-Residence at Columbia College Chicago. His poetry has appeared in such publications as Callaloo, Court Green, Ploughshares, Ninth Letter, and the anthology, Writing Self and Community: African-American Poetry After the Civil Rights Movement. UP JUMP THE BOOGIE is his first collection.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Cypher Books (February 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981913148
• ISBN-13: 978-0981913148
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #231,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The real deal, June 20, 2011

By 

Book Virgin (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Up Jump the Boogie (Paperback)

Up Jump the Boogie is one of those rare, hauntingly magical works that will suck you into the poetic world of urban life. John Murillo gives the junkies, hookers and hustlers, a name, a face. He tells us how "little Ebony" the "almost prom queen" comes to sell herself for five bucks behind a dumpster. Then there's The Prisoner's Wife who learns that making love to her man fresh out of the big house isn't what it used to be. There are odes to a father, b-ball and Marvin Gaye. Through it all is the rhythm of love and heart ache.

Murillo "praises it all," the moon that "hung high and round as one of Dolores' breasts," the ailing father who's hands "Held both grandbabies and grenades" yet stumbles "under the weight of a number two pencil," and the "Streetwalking woman, sister of my soul. In the day's last light, she is almost beautiful." You don't have to be a lover or poetry to feel the enchantment of this book. His first time out, Murillo slam dunks.

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Love It!, April 17, 2011

By 

Meriah L. Crawford (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Up Jump the Boogie (Paperback)

I had the great pleasure of reading this book recently: it is a wonderful collection of poems. Beautiful language, evocative of times and places far more real than I am used to in poetry. Power and impact. Highly recommended. See the author's site for some of his poetry: [...].

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic collection, February 21, 2011

By 

Cheri Johnson "Cheri Johnson" (Provincetown, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Up Jump the Boogie (Paperback)

A really magnificent poetry collection -- the lines are so finely wrought, so intelligent, but spilling over, too, with a great force of real music and emotion. I think of the poem "Enter the Dragon" so often ever since I read it, both because it's so beautiful and because it hurts ... I just loved this book, and I highly recommend it.