Disaster Tourism is a debut poetry collection that offers glimpses of disasters at once personal and global. The term “disaster tourism” refers to the offensive practice of visiting sites after a cataclysm. Steeped in violence, injustice, immigration stories, and accounts of police brutality, Disaster Tourism gives us a lens to re-imagine our dangerous surroundings in the hopes that we strive toward a better existence, even when it hurts.

Born of a Cuban refugee father and a mother whose homeland of Gotteschee is now considered Slovenia, Rena J. Mosteirin’s identity and poetry are shaped by the respective lost homelands of her parents. Bold, unflinching, and lyrical, yet laced with a disarmingly clever and sometimes wicked sense of humor, these poems sift through various sites and forms of devastation to reveal moments of love and joy.

Mosteirin uses observational wit and arresting clarity to bring us closer to the fires burning all around us. Yet, through it all, there is the interconnectedness of family and community – including our world community – entreating us to carry on with an eye toward helping each other through this challenging life. Ultimately, Disaster Tourism holds a mirror to our broken world and asks: what will you do when you find yourself looking back?