CRITICS OF MYSTERY MARVEL is Youssef Alaoui's debut full-length poetry collection, which explores human relationships between individuals, cultures, races, and genders. He deftly utilizes archaic tones to formulate an artistic approach to metaphor in verse, creating images that appear wholly in the mind and not on the page. This volume consists of ten sections that explores Alaoui's family and heritage, an endless source of inspiration for his varied, dark, spiritual and carnal writings. Blending surrealism, magical realism, and language alchemy, Alaoui explores the human mythos of love, poverty, politics, racism, and war. A few of the poems are written in French and Spanish, translated to English. Post-beat verse from the San Francisco Bay area and the Big-Sur, CRITICS OF MYSTERY MARVEL touches the depth of the soul with poetry that is metaphorically luminous.

YOUSSEF ALAOUI is a Moroccan Latino American poet, author, editor and artist. Alaoui studied classical Arabic and Spanish baroque poetry, and Moroccan contemporary poetry at New College of California, San Francisco. His work has appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Big Bridge, Cherry Bleeds, 580 Split, Full of Crow, Carcinogenic Poetry, Dusie Press, Tsunami Books, Red Fez, and Rivet Journal. He is the author of the novella, The Blue Demon (2012), Death at Sea—Poems (2013), and the short story collection, Fiercer Monsters (2017). http://youssefalaoui.tumblr.com