As I Am / Soy Como Soy

This book is Cristina Cortez's most personal and direct poetry collection about growing up and being a person with a disability who developed a confident identity. The poems are social-justice-focused, diverse, tender, and intently break out of the margins of convention. She deliberately uses different literary and experimental techniques that make the poems flow together in unexpected ways, weaving, ebbing, and oscillating from one to the next.

As I Am / Soy Como Soy redefines the meaning of what it is to be someone who lives with a disability despite always being under the lens of discrimination simply for being different. To underscore its literary and disability-empowered strengths, As I Am / Soy Como Soy was released on July 30th, the week of the ADA's 33rd anniversary.

The book features:

• Forward by Rhina P. Espaillat, writer, poet, & translator
• Literary analysis by Edgar Smith, poet & editor
• Cover design and artist statement by Hector Escalante Rivera
• Back cover review by Jason Fogler, Ph.D., Director of Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities at Boston Children's Hospital and assistant Professor of Pediatrics and psychology at Harvard Medical School.

As I Am / Soy Como Soy, in its multidimensionality, is meant to continue to foster the importance of the independent living movement for people with disabilities. The book can serve as an inspiration and motivational text for any and all readers interested in personal growth, and further fuel the fight for disability advocacy and full inclusion.