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Julian Talamantez Brolaski (it/xe/they/he) is a poet and country musician, the author of Wild and Blue (forthcoming Wave Books 2027), Of Mongrelitude (Wave Books 2017), Advice for Lovers (City Lights 2012), and gowanus atropolis (Ugly Duckling Presse 2011). Julian plays with the band Juan & the Pines, and their first full-length solo album It’s Okay Honey came out in 2023. Julian was the 2023–2024 Bagley Wright lecturer, a 2021 Pew Foundation Fellow, and the recipient of the 2020 Cy Twombly Award for Poetry. Its poems were recently included in Queer Nature (2022), When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry (2020) and We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics (Nightboat 2020). Julian is the co-editor of The Starry Field: A Gathering of New Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Poetry with Crisosto Apache, out from Litmus Press in October 2026.
(Photo credit: Ryan Collerd) -
Reviews for Advice for Lovers
Truly, these poems—all those in the book—are great, the naughtiest ones just happen to also rank among the most superbly supple display of an embrace of lyric language to be found in the work of any contemporary younger poet. Brolaski's gifted play of alliteration and syllabic deft shines with this collection. The power is immediate and raw.
Patrick James Dunagan, The Volta
Brolaski, with a powerfully trans poetic, instructs us on just this fact, cloying power dynamics, pulling hair, and refusing any of the quaint old boundaries...Advice for Lovers is the type of book that makes you see language with fresh eyes, challenging you toward something fiercer and more honest yet. It leaves you bruised and aching to be bruised again, and isn’t that what you were asking for after all?
T Fleischmann, The Rumpus
The Advice for Lovers poems are less to do with word-creation and more to do with wordplay. They are obedient to the conceit which is their title / which is to say that they are a manual for use by lovers / before during and after the event(s) of love...His sense of love is playful and lustful and full.
Alan Davies, The Poetry Foundation
Reviews of books by Julian Talamantez Brolaski
Of Mongrelitude -
Poems
- "stonewall to standing rock"
- Three New Poems (in Jacket 2)
- “When will spring come in” (in Maggie Magazine)
- “What to say upon being asked to be friends” (in Poetry Out Loud)
- Three Poems (in Poets for Living Waters)
- “A Tonalist Poetry Feature" – Five Poems (in Jacket 2)
- “The Perfect Love Poem Tutorial” (in Drunken Boat)
- Four Poems (in Elective Infinities)
- Four Poems (in Kite Full of Whiskey)
- Two Poems (in Shampoo Poetry)
- “in the cut” (in Lambda Literary)
- Three poems (in My Own Private Carousel)Interviews
- Jubilat
- Boog City, with Ana Božičević
- Please Excuse this Poem -
Audio
- Brolaksi talks and reads at Bookworm
- Brolaski reads for Greeting’s Readings
- Brolaski reads for Dia's Readings in Contemporary Poetry series
VideoJulian Talamantez Brolaski's lyric video for the song 'Gourd Flower'
At the Radar Reading Series:
“False Starts: Nick Hoff, Lyn Hejinian, and Julian Talamantez Brolaski” at The Lab:
“Poetry International #45 - Julian Talamantez Brolaski & antoine de kom” for Poetry International:
Book Release Party for Advice for Lovers:
Poets for Living Waters:
Stain of Poetry:
”Another Man’s Poison” at the Movie Nite Festival:
