Ion Love: Poems by Julia C. Gaytán is an incisive debut collection that exists in the liminal space between crushing traditionality and nonconforming desire. Her pieces follow the metaphoric process of electrovalence bonding, equating ionic bond formation to romantic connections, both as circumstantial undertakings that can be explained by physical position and natural tendencies. Ironically, her prosaic scientific description of manufactured love creates a space where lust erupts as a natural byproduct to "ionic" connections and detachments. In this place of alteration, indignation and yearning take a leading part of revised chemical reactions that occur between an unapologetic self redefined and a world in search of unmediated compassion.
Advanced Praise:
Soft as shadow twisting away from the white hot clutches of repression and complacency, Ion Love, by Julia Gaytan, is an alchemical equation of Brown girl feminism, hood intellectualism, and lip biting desire. Each poem births a pathway to not just witnessing the patriarchy's ejection from feminine consciousness, but an opportunity to transform our fingers into the claw and metal of our foremothers agony and rip it into a thousand precious deaths. Gaytan transports us into the throws of Audre Lorde's erotic, an invitation to push past fear, away from the "safe" swaddle of colonial traditions, and into every spiritual crevice of corporeal want one has ever lusted towards - be it fight, pleasure, or voice. This poetry collection is the back arch of expression and sensation while rejecting every piece of bullshit society keeps trying to feed its daughters; savor it like you finally know your worth and enjoy yourself as Gaytan explores the beauty of self knowing and the sexy in boundaries.
-Vanessa Rochelle Lewis, author of Reclaiming UGLY!: A Radically Joyful Guide to Unlearn Oppression and Uplift, Glorify, and Love Yourself
Julia C. Gaytan's debut collection, Ion Love, we feel the heat of romance and bodies in motion. We feel the blazing colorful sunset with "the anticipation of the pink moon" in the recognizable Los Angeles landscape that folks born and raised in this city are familiar with. She unapologetically explores the desire to be loved and seen. Gaytan shares childhood memories and past loves with an understanding of where she's made mistakes, with a deep sense of self-awareness that is refreshing and relatable. Her poetry is expansive and eloquent like the Fibonacci sequence, like the galaxy. She weaves past, present, and future, throughout her poems. Reminding us of the rhythms and movement of our beings on this planet, a rhythm all her own that spirals and unravels time and time again.
-Jesenia Chavez, author of award-winning poetry collection, "This Poem Might Save You (me)"
