CHINGONA RULES IS A FINALIST FOR THE JUAN FELIPE HERRERA
BEST POETRY AWARD. ORDER YOUR COPY FROM FINISHING LINE PRESS TODAY! 

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Powerful women have a chingona in them, and Castillo Planas compels the reader to appreciate this, in all the defiant tenderness of self- affirmation. Beautifully written in an English bilinguals are welcome to enter,  this poetry showcases the complex, nuanced voice of women in today’s America. Bravo!
–Dr. Liliana Trevizán, Professor, Modern Languages, SUNY Potsdam

In Chingona Rules, the word Chingona is synonymous with home. Sometimes home is found within the pages of history books or the love of Brown men, or in the resistance of her code switch. When home is a morbid memory the mind finds solace in the assurance of her identity, the comfort of a psych ward, the unburden of forgetting, and in the autonomy of legacy planning. Chingona Rules is at its core a love story, a manifesto of survival, and a reconciliation of mind, body, and spirit.
–Elisabet Velasquez, Poet

Chingona Rules is a handbook for resiliency and a radical love letter to unapologetic bodies that know “healing starts at the wound.” Melissa Castillo Planas proves we don’t have to bleed out in our poems in order to be heard, but if we choose to, we suture the wound and wear the scar proudly.  She invites us to dream boundlessly, despite the dystopian society she calls her American home of “fantasias imposibles” and rather than paint a perfect picture, Castillo Planas proudly points to her tattoos, with the smirk of satisfaction, self-acceptance, and ancestral knowledge that declares Chingonas like her “will not be contained.”
–Peggy Robles- Alvarado, poet

A MEXICAN STATE OF MIND IS HERE

ORDER YOUR COPY!

“A Mexican State of Mind presents a
refreshing look into the creative voices emerging from Mexican New York  where these unique experiences are shaping our new imaginaries of young Mexican immigrants.”

--José Higuera López, Deputy Director,
Mexican Studies Institute at
The City University of New York
A Mexican State of Mind: New York City and the New Borderlands of Culture explores the cultural and creative lives of the largely young undocumented Mexican population in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001. Inspired by a dialogue between the landmark works of Paul Gilroy and Gloria Anzaldúa, it develops a new analytic framework, the Atlantic Borderlands, which bridges Mexican diasporic experiences in New York City and the black diaspora, not as a comparison but in recognition that colonialism, interracial and interethnic contact through trade, migration, and slavery are connected via capitalist economies and technological developments. This book is based on ten years of fieldwork in  New York City, with members of  a vibrant community of young Mexican migrants who coexist and interact with people from all over the world. It focuses on youth culture including hip hop, graffiti, muralism, labor activism, arts entrepreneurship and collective making.

POET. SCHOLAR. NOVELIST. WRITER. EDITOR.

 Books by Dr. Melissa Castillo Planas: 

COATLICUE EATS THE APPLE
​Second Printing Forthcoming!

"In Coatlicue Eats the Apple, Melissa Castillo-Garsow introduces us to the poetry of refusal and discovery. By subverting sacred symbols with angsty, humorous rebellion, Castillo-Garsow becomes the iconoclast that we all need. Beware: her poetry is not for us who seek decoration and adornment; her poetry is the mosh pit into which we are accidentally tossed, momentarily lost, and thankfully self-discovered" -Willie Perdomo, The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon

ORDER MANTECA! 

¡MANTECA!: AN ANTHOLOGY OF AFRO-LATINO POETRY

Bringing together some of the biggest names in Latino poetry with talented newcomers, this Anthology is a celebration of a long history of Afro-Latinidad in the United States. It represents three generations of Afro-Latino poetics from across the country and  is  published by Arte Público Press as well as available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
“A welcome addition to the cornucopia of books sharing the poetic voices of the Americas. ¡Manteca!, like its English translation, ‘butter,’ will melt delectably in the mind, creating flavors and nuances to ponder again and again.” — Booklist 

Available NOW! 
​ ​LA VERDAD: AN INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUE ON HIP HOP LATINIDADES

The first volume of its kind, La Verdad features 20 essays about Hip Hop in Latin America with a new focus on the participation of women, indigenous peoples and Afro-descendents. Covering more than a dozen countries and five languages, it is the first book from Ohio State University Press's new Global Latino/a Series.
Available  as e-book, Hardback and Paperback at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
“This volume forges a new path in the critical debates on hip hop by studying the global engagement of Latinos with hip hop, one in which a transnational lens becomes absolutely necessary.—Ignacio Corona, coeditor of Postnational Musical Identities: Cultural Production, Distribution, and Consumption in a Globalized Scenario