Escaramuza

About Escaramuza

Join an international expedition with three distinct narratives: one that explores the poet’s father's life as a laborer in California, the mother's domesticity in rural Zacatecas, and her own experience in Chicago. Mimicking the nature of oral tradition, Escaramuza—or a female Charro—is a debut chapbook of the highest caliber.

“A machete, as Mother was–

bleeding through a foam

that had previously birthed

only tortillas and our curt silence;

you can tell the difference between

when a bullet slices a cloud, and when

it makes a cavity out of a thigh, and then

steals the blue from your veins to, at once,

forge a pen, then write your will –”

2026 Chapbook Project: Spring Cohort.

The beginning of our newly instated Chapbook Corp is going monochrome. 4 authors (2 of whom are debutants in their respective genres) published at the same time for one massive chapbook cohort. Original artwork was hand-selected by our editor-in-chief for both the Fall and Spring cohorts. This project is what 10 years of chapbook publishing looks like. This is Thirty West.

30 pgs with a 5.5” x 8.5” trim size

Jacket Artwork by Oliva’s Ink Illustrations

Esénia Bañuelos is a Mexican-American and Wixárika experimental prose poet from the East Side of Chicago, Illinois. She is a graduating senior in Linguistics at Bryn Mawr College. Her work traces her childhood in Chicagoland and celebrates diasporic Indigeneity, multilingualism, and the immigrant story. Her work has been published in The Chapter House Journal, Stanford University MANTIS, the North Dakota Quarterly, and more. This is Esénia’s debut chapbook.