ASU Book Group: 'Every Sound Is Not a Wolf' by Alberto Ríos

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, the ASU Book Group's September 2025 reading selection is “Every Sound Is Not a Wolf” by Alberto Ríos, Regents Professor of English and director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU.

The book group is open to all in the ASU community and meets monthly this fall from noon to 1 p.m. 

Haven't read the book? Come anyway! Authors are always present.

*Note new in-person location for fall 2025.

Synopsis

Alberto Ríos’ thirteenth collection of poetry, “Every Sound is Not a Wolf” evokes and awakens the senses—the smell of herbs, “the geckos at their mysterious work.” Told entirely in couplets, Ríos balances the harmonies and disharmonies found throughout all of existence—between people and the natural world, between life and death, between spirit and body, between borders real and imagined. What does it mean for a body to house two languages? And what is an imaginary line between countries? From backyard to Sonoran desert, from mining town to river, this collection journeys the human experience.

About the book group

The ASU Book Group meetings and selections for fall 2025 are:

Sept. 25 - “Every Sound Is Not a Wolf” by Alberto Ríos

Oct. 23 - “Wild for Austen” by Devoney Looser

Nov. 13 - “Roadside” by Dylan Park-Pettiford

Dec. - no meeting

The ASU Book Group is sponsored as a community outreach initiative hosted in partnership between the Department of English and ASU Library.