Karai Senryū was born in 1718 in Edo. A town official and frequent judge of poetry contests, he was responsible for popularizing a more whimsical or humorous variation of haiku that now bears his name (senryū). Some of his work is darkly ironic, as in this piece. her parents, left…
In 1688, during one of his many journeys throughout Japan, Bashō came to Mount Yamato Katsuragi. Near the Shinto shrine for the local god, Hitokotonushi, the poet composed this haiku. still, what joy I’d feel to find the god’s face amid all these morning blooms —translated by David Bowles, April…
On Wednesday, February 17, Tor(dot)com revealed the cover of The Blue-Spangled Blue, book one of The Path, my new BIPOC space opera. We have since updated the image on the cover. Here’s the new version! Series description: Humanity stands at a crossroads. Our next steps will either lead us over…
After writing my first science fiction novel, The Blue-Spangled Blue, I began to get ideas for a sort of literary soundtrack, music that would dramatize certain scenes or embody characters. By 2012, I had produced fifteen instrumental pieces. In 2020 and 2021, I crafted another five compositions for the book’s…
So excited to share the cover for my debut picture book My Two Border Towns, illustrated by Erika Meza, being released simultaneously in Spanish as Mis Dos Pueblos Fronterizos by Kokila on August 24, 2021. A description of the book: Early one Saturday morning, a boy prepares for a trip to the…
So delighted to see Rise of the Halfling King (illustrated by Charlene Bowles) on Kirkus’s list of Best Middle-Grade Graphic Novels of 2020!
Carolina and Juan Ángel “Johnny” Garza are twins living in a small Texas town on the US-Mexican border. Shortly after their 12th birthday, their mother disappears. Their father—Dr. Oscar Garza, a professor of history—is convinced she left him; the twins suspect foul play of some sort. This suspicion is made…
Exciting news: Castle Bridge Media has bought my BIPOC-futurist space opera quartet THE PATH (formerly named D’Angelo Chronicles.) Revised versions of the first three books (briefly self-published a decade ago) will drop quarterly in 2021 with stunning new cover art by Cody Jimenez. Then the series will wrap up in…
A work-in-progress. The soundtrack to my novel The Swirling Black. Will be released spring 2022. 1-Only the Broken 2-Reversing the Arrow 3-Semanawak 4-Return of the Dead
Today, July 7, sees the release of books 1-3 of my 13TH STREET series from the new HarperChapters imprint of HarperCollins, a sort of Latinx Stranger Things for kids ages 5-9. These chapter books focus on three cousins (Malia, Dante and Ivan) who find themselves fighting strange creatures in a…
