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Come for the living wake, stay for these intrepid

Come for the living wake, stay for these intrepid women and their mosaic of salt & aches. #FamilyLore

Long before this novel was completed I had a dream

Long before this novel was completed I had a dream list of readers I hoped would read it and offer a blurb. I feel so grateful these literary beloveds and homies agreed to spend time with my work and offer their stamp. I am beyond honored that so many writers I study, and cheer for, and admire deeply have said such kind things about FAMILY LORE and my first foray into adult fiction. Ah! Okay. I could gush forever. But let me stop.

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Mama is outside ✨ I’ve been writing a lot of

Mama is outside ✨

I’ve been writing a lot of poems about motherhood, and feeling alien in my life, and what return/forward/nostalgia/loss/abundance looks and feels like.

I’ve been writing about hunger for the past and for a version of myself I may have never been but that I somehow keep remembering with rose-colored glasses.

I’ve been writing about the body. About weaning myself from body positivity and self-love and trying to simply get to body equilibrium, a calmness around the mirror without the desire to contort.

I’ve been writing about weaning and the weepiness of feeding my babe differently much sooner than I’d planned.

I’ve been writing about the birth which was not the peaceful bringing of life I had hoped and left scar tissue I’m still massaging into a memory I can look at.

By writing I mean I’ve been actually writing, but by writing I also mean I’ve been processing because writing is thinking, is working through the knot of a thing in language, and by doing so naming the feelings and greeting them and inviting them to stay or go, but at least they’re not just strangers.

I’ve been “ode-hunting.” Searching for the praise poems as I also sift through so so so many new feelings. And so praise to the water, to the blessing of the boats, to the mirror selfie, to the braided and golden, praise to my true love, to his kindness and patience, to his hold and my own.

I dreamt/prayed/labored so hard to bring both thes

I dreamt/prayed/labored so hard to bring both these loves to fruition.

Been thinking a lot this week about what it means to be five months postpartum and back outside; a woman chasing the stories and poems and the time-consuming honesty required for both all while wanting to be ever present for my little one. I missed myself so much. The self that wrote lines when they struck and who talked to smart people about art publicly. I missed the self who enjoyed airports and the thrill of a stage. I did not miss the post-event anxiety where I second-guessed my work or compared myself to other writers. But for the most part it felt good to be back in the thick of my artistic life. But wow. Not having my kid around is a visceral ache. I kept checking my pockets, my back pack. I walked back to my guest room twice, sure I’d left a necessity behind. “I’m forgetting something” I repeated to the event escorts. But it was someone that was missing. My body remembers this new Liz as an extension of the baby. Even when I was focused on a discussion or my reading the little one hummed in the back of my mind. It’s kind of trippy.

I have a lot more to say about how I’m crafting a definition of “working mama,” how I’m acclimating to this new way I need to lengthen and stretch but for now just this pic of two loves meeting…although to be fair, baby heard me read from this in utero a ton while I was drafting, so baby has had practice playing nice while momma follows dreams 💗

Happy Pub Anniversary, Xiomara! You changed my who

Happy Pub Anniversary, Xiomara! You changed my whole life. I’m so thankful I followed this story to all the wild and uncomfortable places it led me.

To celebrate the five year anniversary of The Poet X, I want to honor some of my most dedicated readers by hosting a fanart contest with the chance to win a signed copy of the book.

If you have ever felt inspired to create art or poetry or some other cool thing because of The Poet X I would love to see it. Post it under #xiomaraanniversary from now until March 16th. I’ll be looking at all of the submissions and picking six folks who will receive a signed copy and some other goodies. 💗

Sometimes, the baby will be napping and I’ll hav

Sometimes, the baby will be napping and I’ll have a moment of quiet. I’ll lose myself in social or a book or whatever thing I’m using to take a break from being “on.” And then the baby wakes up and it’s like I awake to the reality all over again: I’m somebody’s momma.

It feels both like I’ve always been, and like everyday it hits anew.

And ain’t that wild? And ain’t that wildly wonderful? 💓

2022 Year-End-Review: Hair Edition

2022 Year-End-Review: Hair Edition

*BOOK GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED* congrats to @cristineci

*BOOK GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED* congrats to @cristineciana, @ecapone220, and @mountainmomom! Thank you for everyone who participated ♥️

Happy December, Beautiful People! I’m doing another giveaway this year for three texts that will keep you hooked during the winter commutes and snowed in weekends.

NERUDA ON THE PARK is the debut novel by @cleyvisnatera. It follows a Dominican mother and daughter duo navigating the changes coming to their beloved neighborhood…and their personal lives. Momma Eusebia is out here scheming to prevent the “washed out, white out” and to protect her community from gentrification. Her daughter Luz, in pursuit of upward mobility and the good life, has a love jones for a developer on the very same project her mother is fighting. A complex and intimate portrayal of a Dominican family responding to new New York, this book feels both like home and like a new avenue for Dominican-American literature.

CRYING IN THE BATHROOM will give make you laugh and break your heart all in the same chapter. Poet, novelist, and now, memoirist, @erikalsanchez is is an unapologetic writer who insists on poignant honesty; all of which is on full display in this Chicago native’s latest offering.

National book award winning (as of last month! I’m still hyped for this win!) ALL OF MY RAGE is a young adult novel by the illustrious @sabaatahir . The novel follows Sal and Noor, two teens faced with their family’s crumbling dreams and their own layered desires regarding what heirlooms are worth saving and which ones need to be left to the desert dust. Heartbreaking and hopeful all at once, Tahir is a magician at capturing how hard it can be to love your home and also see it as a place you need to leave in order to be your full self.

The chance to be chosen starts today and will end on December 20th at noon. The winners will be contacted personally for further information.

To enter the draw:
- Comment and tag 2 friends
- Follow the 3 authors

During my last round of FAMILY LORE revisions, the

During my last round of FAMILY LORE revisions, the copy editor wondered at the intense descriptions of the characters entering their homes. It hadn’t been conscious craft at work on my end: I legit hadn’t realized that I put a stopgap in the book each time the characters walked into a house. But once the CE pointed it out, I couldn’t unsee how the book was riddled with my musings on returnings and reenterings. On what it means to unlock a door with bated breath for what’s on the other side; on what you might be letting in. On the liminality that exists between the threshold of where we were and the one where we will be.

Five years after our commitment ceremony, I still want to cross through every entryway that leads me to this beloved human of mine. I can’t wait to see what other portals we construct.

Also, shoutout to looking for a picture and finding one you like and then following an extended metaphor towards what may be a corny or wonderful (who knows, the line between brilliant language and overwrought can be so thin) caption. In case y’all were wondering if I pre-write and schedule my posts, I don’t. These joints are spur of the moment “oh, it’s our anniversary maybe I should post!” type joints. This new sleep deprived mami is currently just trying to plan her naps. But first and always:

Happy anniversary, my guy! 💗

*COVER REVEAL* My first adult novel, FAMILY LORE,

*COVER REVEAL*

My first adult novel, FAMILY LORE, has been many years in the making. This one right here wins as the most personal writing I have yet to do. FAMILY LORE voices the lives of several generations of women in a Dominican-American family as one character plans her own living wake. Each woman occupies a seat of personal magic, and grapples with how their standing memories have been jostled by the potential of impending death.

And I’m glad this novel has such a gorgeous cover to wrap all the threads within. We know this wicker and rattan treasure. The Peacock throne, Huey P’s iconic sitting place, the ubiquitous babyshower chair I grew up seeing at every expectant gathering. A woven resting place of simple and supple beauty, @vivianlrowe captured it all. & I invite you to come sit with me for a while. FAMILY LORE has stories to tell.

Special thanks to @deeshaphilyaw who not only wrote the sweetest blurb, but also included this lovely take for her 2022 reading wrap up in The Millions. Will be sharing more blurbs soon!

Released on August 1st, 2023 from @eccobooks, the pre-order link is now available in my bio. This one is for the baddies.

Interrupting your regularly scheduled baby bump ph

Interrupting your regularly scheduled baby bump photo barrage with my first ever reel courtesy of The @PoetryFoundation sending me something sparkly.

Your Young People’s Poet Laureate has entered the chat.

That time I decided to cosplay as my momma. This i

That time I decided to cosplay as my momma. This is her pregnant with me, and me on my last day pregnant with little homie. Thank goodness for Halloween season because I’d been trying to find a dress that worked for months! ♥️

Our goal is that little one knows who they are and

Our goal is that little one knows who they are and whose they are. 💕

📸: @conradomuluc

We decided early on we wanted to enjoy this pregna

We decided early on we wanted to enjoy this pregnancy as a sacred and inward-facing time for our little family. Over the last nine months my favorite and most honest response to the question “how are you doing?” was to say I was in the season of sweetness. Incubating this little spirit was magical. I’m sure watching baby grow outside of me will be equally as trippy…if for no other reason than because I’m hallucinating from lack of sleep!

Now our little love is earthside I am delighted to celebrate the past year a bit more publicly… so gird your loins because baby bump photos are going to overtake the grid!

Mami Liz est. October 2022 ✨

Thirteen years yesterday. We had a nice dinner at

Thirteen years yesterday. We had a nice dinner at a spot within walking distance. Sat side by side which is our favorite way to share food, (and to be quietly messy!). We reflected on our growth, individually and as a unit. We shook our heads at the audacity of 20 year olds. We said thanks to our ancestors at how we learned grace side by side. I love this man differently, singularly than when we first got together, and I’ve learned that his love pushing me to stretch, to be my biggest most aligned self, is a gift beyond what I thought partnership could offer when I was young.

Our family’s functioning definition of love: “Love as 'the will to extend one's self for the the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth. ' Love is as love does. Love is an act of will–namely, both an intention and an action.” bell hooks

Good bruhs, baddies, and beloveds: I’ve just bee

Good bruhs, baddies, and beloveds: I’ve just been named by the Poetry Foundation as the Young People’s Poet Laureate for 2022-2024. I am too amped to promote poetry to children and their families, and to devote myself to the vision I have of ensuring poetry reaches young people who often aren’t exposed to poetics, especially those outside of the mainland U.S.

Special thanks to @poetryfoundation for this recognition and the resources they’ll put behind my vision as a poetry advocate. And a shoutout to the list of phenomenal writers I join in the history of this laureateship, especially @jacqueline_woodson, who has always been a beacon I home in on in terms of how to have a writing career fully of integrity, humility, literary citizenship, and swag.

Poesía, pa’lante. ✨

My first grown folk novel is officially off to cop

My first grown folk novel is officially off to copyedits! One step closer to being in the hands of readers. I can’t wait for you to meet the Marte women as they prepare for a living wake.

This summer required me to tap into my creative force on another level. I am so so so proud of how I met every deadline, kept myself focused, and most importantly, enjoyed crafting and blossoming a new self and a new body of work.

Let the reaping begin! (Sike, I’m always sowing because it makes me happy, so already drafting some other things, but also celebrating this win! 96k words! Big book for the book baddies, okay!)

✨there is so much i want to tell you all about r

✨there is so much i want to tell you all about releasing this book, in this moment, and how i couldn’t have known when i wrote the original poem (& when i pitched it as an illustrated project) what it would come to mean to me; the future this poem has continued to help me write. but those are stories for another day, for now mark 5/3/2022 - inheritance day ✨

Teaching yourself how to write in a new form can b

Teaching yourself how to write in a new form can be very, very hard. When I first began screenwriting my ego took the biggest hit. But, I learned to lean into my strengths (I’m a voicie-ass writer, y’all, and my screenwriting is leaning into that!), and to do the necessary push ups where I wasn’t as strong (oh, hi, ridiculous formatting and technical language!).

I could not be prouder of the pilot for CLAP WHEN YOU LAND. When I was first offered an opportunity to screen write, I turned it down because I didn’t think I was ready. I’m thankful I was talked out of the “no” and that I trusted myself enough to step up to stretch myself. All that to say, fuck perfection, chasing possibilities is way more fun! 💛

Wherein a poet who wrote a sexy little loosie abou

Wherein a poet who wrote a sexy little loosie about lust in inconvenient places (titled: On Making Love In a Friend’s Basement) was interviewed in Dubai for Harper’s Bazaar - Arabia. Grateful to the @maisonvalentino team for inviting me to be a part of so many glamorous and delightful opportunities. The Arabia team was lovely and had your girl feeling 👸🏽💛.

My favorite part of the interview is where the poem is called “too steamy to print in these pages.” Grown and sexy, Liz, ya heard!

Photography: Adel Rashid. Styling: Nour Bou Ezz. Make-up: Mabs Khakwani. Braids: @beautythebeautician. Hair: Laloge Beauty Lounge. Stylist’s Assistant: Cristina Burca

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