UTampa Press is delighted to announce the acquisition of RAÑA, the next novella in our Pomme series, by Caleb True.
RAÑA spirals outward from the blood, sweat, and heat of the boxing ring where Eugenio Rafael Raña takes on any opponent in Villa Ocho. In every match, he is again a soldier in the Falklands (Malvinas) War, battling alongside his Argentinian countrymen and hell-bent on victory. Inside the ring, he envisions himself a heavyweight phenom punishing his British foes with haymakers. Outside the ring, Raña spends his days in the hinterlands of Argentina, drinking and looking for his next fight. Rewinding, pausing, fast-forwarding—he replays VHS tapes of professional boxing matches, as he does his memories of the war, searching for a win. RAÑA is a phantasmagoria of modern war, brutal defeat, and a lifelong anguish that endures.
Advance Praise
“In RAÑA, Caleb True moves between incantation and brutality with the poise of a born stylist. He shares with W.G. Sebald a gift for making memory feel archaeological and Roberto Bolaño a fascination with violence as both historical fact and personal mythology. His unforgettable protagonist Eugenio Rafael Raña—gaucho, conscript, bicycle thief, survivor, boxer—is a man who fights not to win but to keep fighting, who carries a war inside him that no peace can end. This novella will haunt you.” —John McManus, Whiting Award Winner and author of Bitter Milk and Fox Tooth Heart
“An exhilarating portrait of a fighter, RAÑA bursts onto the page. A novel that is completely alive in images and that makes the reader feel alive, too.” —Amina Cain, author Indelicacy and On a Winter’s Night a Traveler
“Mythic, original, deeply intelligent, and even prophetic—RAÑA presents a boxer at the top of his game, at war with mortality and the forces of destiny. Caleb True is a writer to watch.” —Janet Peery, National Book Award Finalist for The River Beyond The World
“RAÑA delivers only the goods: it’s unsentimental, unsparing, and yet deeply poetic. True is at top form here.” —Paul Bergmann, songwriter
“A knockout debut that announces Caleb True as a writer to watch. Like its titular fighter, RAÑA is compact, powerful, and relentless in its vision of the lasting violence of imperialism.” —Michael Alessi, author of Call a Body Home
“An epic in the space of a fist. Like Agustina Baztericca, Gabriel García Márquez, or Ernest Hemingway, True’s prose brings family, community, and friendship to life as his characters reckon with oppression, classism, poverty, and lack of opportunity. The Malvinas Islands and the South Atlantic are drawn with a curious, sympathetic, and keen eye for natural and cultural history as well as an appreciation for the vastness of the ocean, the kelp forests, and the sheep-dotted islands. The incongruity of British citizens living so far from home, defending land that was once Argentina’s, paints a complex historical drama without ever becoming pedantic. Like the Arctic winds that haunt True’s prose, RAÑA whips as much as it whispers.” —Kristine Zeigler, author of Cover this Country like Snow and Other Stories and Fundraiser’s Companion
Caleb True is a writer, editor, critic, musician, athlete, and podcaster. He holds an MA in history from the University of Massachusetts and an MFA in creative writing from Old Dominion University. He is the author of the critical essay On Ruben Slikk: A Manifesto on the Purpose of Art and the Value of Transgression (Dynamo Verlag 2024) and Chansons Russes (Quetzalcoatl 2016; Dynamo Verlag 2023), a historical triptych of stories set in Soviet Russia. He has published short stories and essays in Ploughshares, The Sonora Review, Faultline, Yemassee, Whiskey Island, and many others. He is the founder and managing editor of Dynamo Verlag (est. 2015), a boutique publishing house specializing in textual work demonstrating genius, eclecticism, and originality.
RAÑA will be published this fall. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates!