BRATTLEBORO, VT, October 15, 2025: For author Kimberly Vargas Agnese, “social- environmental justice” isn’t a buzz word to sell books. It’s a way of life. Kimberly demonstrates her care for the natural world and for the people who inhabit it in her lifestyle and vocation. She committed three decades to service as a special educator, a youth pastor, and a literacy coach in Fresno’s inner city. Now, she spends her time writing advocacy poetry and rewilding Meadow Arc, a young suburban food forest complete with wildlife corridors, water sources and plenty of pollinator plants.
Vargas Agnese brings both compassion and honesty to her portrayal of life in California’s Central Valley in Kadupul Flower, an upcoming poetry release from Green Writers Press. As both a Chicana poet and a longtime resident of Fresno, California, Vargas Agnese speaks into the political turmoil and humanitarian devastation wreaking havoc across the state of California. Fresno becomes a microcosm for our nation and the titular plant a symbol of strength and resilience in this 74-page collection.
Kadupul Flower explores the concepts of human and environmental dignity, through examination of some of the most pressing concerns of our time: issues like migrant life, ecological justice, homelessness, and sexual-assault. In a reductionist society that boils nature down to dollars and cents, Vargas Agnese invites readers to peel back the price tags and re- discover the meaning of worth. “If we can’t be a little in awe of the blood pumping through our veins, I wonder if we’re going to be able to notice the cyclical pattern of rain,” Vargas Agnese remarked in a recent interview. “It all goes together, you know.”
United States Poet Laureate Emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera, calls Kadupul Flower “a flow of kindness,” stating that “Kadupul Flower is a poetic memoir and a call for ‘whole’ interconnection with nature, ancestors, family, self and migrant realities.” In the words of Young People’s Poet Laureate Emeritus Margarita Engle, Kadupul Flower is “as strong and sensitive as the blossoms of forgiveness and hummingbirds of hope discovered in these poems.” California Poet Laureate Lee Herrick adds, “Kimberly Vargas Agnese is a true seer. The people who populate Kadupul Flower are given full color and dignity in poem after graceful poem. This marvelous book is engaged with its community and the justice it deserves, honoring the culture and the land along the way…’ I love this book.”
May readers see themselves, and each other, in the metaphorical Kadupul Flower.
Kadupul Flower releases October 14th and is distributed by Ingram and Independent Publishing Group, with pre-order copies available from BookShop.Org.
