To the Bone, winner of the 2008 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize, selected by Mark Doty, is a poetic feast. These lush, highly detailed, and at times vulgar poems give insight into the body, mind, and soul of the millions of kitchen workers across the globe. Told with gritty authenticity that only someone with true life experience working “the back of the house”, to use culinary lingo, can bring, Agudelo leads us by the mouth and nose on a one of a kind experience. In Whitmanesque style, Agudelo gives voice to the myriad of colorful characters who prepare our foods and clean up after us, lifting the veil on what we’d rather not see, but can’t turn away from. To the Bone is a unique collection by a stunning new talent. As Mark Doty writes, “To the Bone is an unexpected, bracing debut. You’ll have trouble putting it down.”