Description

Maps is the transmutation of Christina Vega’s debut poetry collection — and the book that started it all at Blue Cactus — Still Clutching Maps. First published in 2017, this pocket-sized poetry collection explores Vega’s cultural and geographic roots as a Chicana in the American Southwest. Vega sends readers down a path of memories, dreams, and warnings, asking them to witness the liminality of borderland existence. The poems in this collection, whether by omission, change, or preservation, illuminate Vega’s lived experiences as their queerness, cultural frameworks, and home drift toward and away from borderlands.

Listen to the poems 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christina Vega (they/them) is a Queer Chicana poet from the borderlands of Texas & Mexico. Their mother is Anita Vega,and their grandmother is Aurora Vega. They live on Puyallup and Nisqually Land. 

Christina is also a non-binary parent. They are the publisher at Blue Cactus Press, where they work with change-makers to create books that serve as tools and community resources. They primarily work with and skill-share with folks from historically marginalized groups who are gate-kept from publishing and creative entrepreneurial spaces/positions. They seek deep collaborations and work that emerges through relationship. 

They published their first poetry collection, Maps, in 2017, Decay, a chapbook co-published with  Winter Texts in 2022, and are working on a forthcoming poetry collection, Vega which comes out later this winter. 

Christina believes we have the power to reshape our communities with principles of Emergent Strategy, transformative justice, and collective laboring of love. They believe revolution starts at home. 

Their poetry has appeared in Creative Colloquy, Frontera Vol. 3: estados silvestres // natural states,  International Poetry Review, Papeachu Issue 3, Timberline Review, WA129+, and Milk Gallery. Christina’s journalism has appeared in City Arts, Grit City Magazine, Hilltop Action Journal, OLY ARTS, The Ranger, VOICE Magazine and Weekly Volcano. Follow Christina on Twitter and Instagram @bluecactuspress.

Christina has also contributed visual art and poetry to Nuance: A Pride Exhibition (Milk Gallery, July 2019), and The TVs (Alma Mater Tacoma, July 2019). Watch the video below to see what Christina has to say about their work in The TVs.

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