3 Questions with Creative/Critical PhD Student Nathan Osorio

I’m excited that my chapbook, The Last Town Before the Mojave, has been selected by Oliver de la Paz as one of the two winners of the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Poetry Society Chapbook Fellowship. My chapbook is a collection of poems that center on the San Fernando Valley where I grew up, the wildfires native to the region, and a family bearing the burden of intergenerational trauma brought about by migration to a new country.

The chapbook could not have been possible without the support, patience, and guidance of my professors and colleagues at the Literature Department at UCSC. I’m so grateful and excited that such a personal and intimate project will have the opportunity to reach a wider audience!

3 Questions: 

How would you describe your work in three words or phrases?

Cemented over rivers, the San Gabriel Mountains on fire, a yipping coyote

 What is your favorite line from your work?  

“Brother, stay with me. A little longer like the other rays of lightning do.”

What's 1) the most fragrant location that you’ve ever had the chance to write in, 2) the noisiest site you’ve ever written in, and 3) the softest place you’ve ever written in. 

I love this question. 1) My mother’s kitchen table moments before having camarones ala diabla for dinner. 2.) An LA metro bus at rush hour in the summer 3) Inwood Hill Park at the northern tip of Manhattan in spring--tulips and all.