amor., by Sofía Aguilar

Prose, poetry, prose poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features. amor. is a tender open letter to the author’s lover, referred to only as "amor." Spanning nearly a decade and dozens of California scenes—from the outskirts of San Francisco to the poppy fields of Chino Hills, from the longing adolescence of a Pomona high school to the cool deserts of Joshua Tree—the author attempts to write down the couple’s origin story and subsequent life together. Through short vignettes, she transforms mundanity into beauty and brings to light the smallest, but most important, acts of affection. Straddling the boundaries between poetry and prose, fantasy and truth, storytelling and documentation, memory and myth, she paints a portrait of a relationship formed and moved by honesty, respect, longing, and healing. How out of mutual kindness births an equal partnership and admiration for each other and the land they love. Told with quiet urgency and powerful intimacy, this chapbook is a testament to the person the author chose and chooses to love every day, written with the hope that readers will not only be able to love more freely, but also make it more known. Sofía Aguilar is a Chicana writer, editor, and library professional based on the traditional homelands of the Tongva and Chumash peoples, now known as Los Angeles, California. Her work has appeared in the L.A. Times, Refinery29 Somos, and New Orleans Review, among other publications. STREAMING SERVICE: golden shovels made for tv (2021) is her self-published debut poetry chapbook. Its sequel STREAMING SERVICE: season two, also self- published, was released in June 2022. Her debut children’s picture book Queer Latine Heroes: 25 Changemakers from Latin America and the U.S. from History and Today is forthcoming from Jessica Kingsley Publishers in September 2025. You can find her at  sofiaaguilar.com  or on social media at @sofiaxaguilar.