Lara Mimosa Montes
The Time of the Novel (Wendy's Subway, 2025), in addition to two previous books of poetry, THRESHOLES (Coffee House Press, 2020) and The Somnambulist (Horse Less Press, 2016). Her writing has appeared in BOMB, Fence, POETRY, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of artist residencies and fellowships from MacDowell, Lighthouse Works, Jentel, and Headlands Center for the Arts. She is a faculty member of the Creative Writing MFA program at Pacific Northwest College of Art. She also teaches in XE: Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement Master’s program at NYU. She was born in the Bronx.
-
The Time of the Novel
When I put in my notice at the bookstore, the manager—a heavy-set woman in her mid-forties who often spoke in monosyllabic bursts—curtly replied, “We’re sorry to see you go.” Whether my employer regretted her inability to create a work environment that might have fostered my personal growth and tempted me to reconsider my options was beyond the scope of my then-nascent narrative powers, but I did not elaborate, as I did not wish to draw out the details surrounding my sudden departure. Outwardly, I feigned regret, but inside, I rejoiced: I was free, I thought, free to take leave of my post and bid my old, monotonous life among books and bookish people goodbye! A more urgent position awaited me in the form of a transparent eye. I shook the manager’s hand, and before the day was done, I updated my email account preferences so that in one week’s time, any work-related queries would receive the following automated response:
HELLO: I AM CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE. I’M CHASING A DREAM CALLED PROSE.
The Time of the Novel- Print Books
- Wendy's Subway
-
The Time of the Novel
Part of the reason I wished to withdraw from the world was to recover for myself the sacred power of the written word. Prior to my wanting to become narrator, I remember feeling fatigued, bombarded by language; I wished to discover if something had shifted in the world or in me such that the mystical properties of words over time seemed to become diluted.
Disillusioned, I started to become weary of language. I tired of English, but I was also desperate and wordsick. I do not imagine I was alone in this wish to withdraw not just from the small talk, but from the press releases and artist statement, the public language of the self in which everyone appeared suddenly fluent.
For a time, I found poetic sustenance in the form of vanity plates; “RESQME,” “UAGHOST,” “2BCONTD,” and “BODYCON.” These signs, which I received as secret missives from some impish, chance-obsessed god, were provocations to the senses and as such, the soul.
By becoming narrator, I wanted to throw a broken bottle through the void in the hopes that I would receive in exchange all that I had acquiesced to without appreciating how: the power to imagine other worlds.
The Time of the Novel- Print Books
- Wendy's Subway
Lara Mimosa Montes adeptly slows time to explore interiority and liminal territories. Her work is formally innovative and plays with the possibilities of narration, all while being fully tangible, present. Montes is daring, her work unafraid to wrestle with the most complex and foundational ideas, yet doing so on her own terms.