Embedded in place and lush with family, Querida offers an intimate vision of Southern California that fortifies and fractures people who live on a desert's edge. Querida is both a book of endearments and an excoriation of the forces that pry resources--human and natural--from a difficult landscape with no thought to replenishment.-- "Colorado Review"
"[a] rich, perceptive collection"-- "Cream City Review"
Poem by poem, the collection showcases Osorio's talents, the life he's grown into and the culture he breathes with every breath. This collection presents a version of the known world that feels new -- and it is beautiful.-- "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"
In his first book, Nathan Xavier Osorio doesn't think about immigration, family, and capitalism--he thinks through these subjects, imbuing them with a lyrical intelligence that refutes idealization and answers and isolation. Querida is a spectacular book that demands and rewards multiple readings.--Eduardo C. Corral, author of Guillotine
Memory is a guiding force in Nathan Osorio's stunning debut, Querida. From the opening, single-sentence tour-de-force of a poem to sonnet-sequences throughout, Osorio's formal agility and singular voice takes hold of our attention and never lets it go.--Shara McCallum, author of No Ruined Stone
Nathan Xavier Osorio's Querida leads the reader through a series of hymns, songs, and prayers that give voice to the question of how we are formed by what we are born into. The mark of inheritance is presented, repeated, worked through, and returned to--as it is slowly absorbed into the body of the text. Inheritance is the very matter from which this exquisite debut collection derives.--Cynthia Cruz, author of Hotel Oblivion