Casandra López is a Chicana, Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Tongva writer raised in Southern California. A CantoMundo Fellow, López is a founding editor of the literary journal, As/Us: A Space for Women of the World and teaches at Northwest Indian College.

"'After Bullet night / I promised to never turn away from the rib of the left behind, / the long scope of loss.' These poems are the not-turning-away; they are the courage of the self to speak as witness to the layered traumas of personal, familial, and historical grief. With brave and candid precision, López's poetry does not just translate the experience of a brother's murder—an impossible language—into language but scores onto the page trauma's delicate interior. López's dexterity with form, line, and rhythm allows the telling of the unspeakable story. For 'our bodies that are always fumbling / at loss,' these poems answer with clarity, compassion, and shape—they are poems of this place, the place of survival." - Jennifer Elise Foerster, author of Bright Raft in the Afterweather"This collection is riveting. This voice is essential. I highly recommend this vital work to you." - Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels"This is a beautiful elegy: profoundly sad and profoundly uplifting by turns. [...] This is poetry of great integrity: crafted and unabashed, dazzling and trauma tic. What might have been only the legacy of a brother’s shooting becomes a life- giving celebration of who and how he was." - Pulsar Poetry Webzine

Casandra López is a Chicana, Cahuilla, Luiseño, and Tongva writer raised in Southern California. A CantoMundo Fellow, López is a founding editor of the literary journal, As/Us: A Space for Women of the World and teaches at Northwest Indian College.

"'After Bullet night / I promised to never turn away from the rib of the left behind, / the long scope of loss.' These poems are the not-turning-away; they are the courage of the self to speak as witness to the layered traumas of personal, familial, and historical grief. With brave and candid precision, López's poetry does not just translate the experience of a brother's murder—an impossible language—into language but scores onto the page trauma's delicate interior. López's dexterity with form, line, and rhythm allows the telling of the unspeakable story. For 'our bodies that are always fumbling / at loss,' these poems answer with clarity, compassion, and shape—they are poems of this place, the place of survival." - Jennifer Elise Foerster, author of Bright Raft in the Afterweather"This collection is riveting. This voice is essential. I highly recommend this vital work to you." - Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels"This is a beautiful elegy: profoundly sad and profoundly uplifting by turns. [...] This is poetry of great integrity: crafted and unabashed, dazzling and trauma tic. What might have been only the legacy of a brother’s shooting becomes a life- giving celebration of who and how he was." - Pulsar Poetry Webzine