Includes:

• Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire by Michelle Penaloza ([email protected])
• "To the Moon!" Earrings made by Michelle Penaloza. For pierced ears. Quarter show for scale.
• "Just To Look Back At It" Earrings made by Michelle Penaloza. For pierced ears. Quarter show for scale.
• "Moon Monstera" Earrings made by Michelle Penaloza. For pierced ears. Quarter show for scale.

Michelle Penaloza is the author of Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Books, 2019) and two chapbooks, landscape/heartbreak (Two Sylvias, 2015), and Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015). The proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Michelle was born in the suburbs of Detroit, MI and raised in Nashville, TN. She now makes her home in rural Northern California. http://www.michellepenaloza.com/

Description: Ambitious and emotionally complex, Michelle Penaloza's debut poetry collection, Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, explores grief and violence, the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, and the complications of desire. Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire won the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Prize. Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of Oceanic, calls Penaloza's book "remarkable" and says "Of this I am certain: I'll be celebrating this poet for many years to come."
Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire is a work simultaneously culturally specific and universal, with a scope ambitious and emotionally complex, it explores questions of grief and violence, and negotiates loss across landscapes and spans of time. It engages with the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality and the complications of desire.