Through the medium of this allusion, de la Paz meditates on failures, foundering, and the possibility of finding one’s way. In these short clips of montage the unnamed “boy” explores his world and the world of perception, all the while hearing the rumblings of the Minotaur somewhere in the heart of an immense Labyrinth. The depth of the book is told in a series of episodic prose poems that parallel the parable of Theseus and the Minotaur. Interspersed throughout each section are sequences of standardized test questions akin to those one would find in grade school, except these questions unravel into deeper mysteries. Dispatch, recently published by Persea Books in December 2019, won the Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award and has been featured in The New Yorker, The. Awkward-Rich is also author of two collections of poetry. Each section of the Three Act is highlighted by “Autism Spectrum Questionnaires” which are in dialogue with and in opposition to what the parent perceives to be their relationship with their child. Awkward-Rich’s other essays have appeared in TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, American Quarterly, and Science Fiction Studies. He holds a PhD from Stanford University’s program in modern thought and literature. Structured as a Greek play, the book opens with a parents’ earnest quest for answers, understanding, and doubt. Cameron Awkward-Rich is a poet and critic.

In a long sequence of prose poems, questionnaires, and standardized tests, The Boy in the Labyrinth interrogates the language of autism and the language barriers between parents, their children, and the fractured medium of science and school. The Boy in the Labyrinth – Oliver de la Paz

Dispatch by Cameron Awkward-Rich