July Updates: CHABÓCHI DOLL is here, Preorder "How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse," and an Extended Deadline for the Book Award Fiction Prize for QTBIPOC Writers!!
July is upon us and we have the perfect Summer reads!
CHABÓCHI DOLL IS HERE!!!!
Our first ever full length title CHABÓCHI DOLL by féi iká shumarí is now sold everywhere!!! Please support indie presses and make sure to get your copy directly from us, or, ask your local libraries to stock this incredible book of essays!
CHABÓCHI DOLL is the trans homegirl that keeps it real and doesn’t fear cracking citizenship by the neck.
Part auto-fiction, part manifesto, féi iká shumarí’s CHABÓCHI DOLL snaps the present moment in America tainted by the persecution of undocumented and native bodies, extensive trans legislation seeking to seize the livelihood of trans people, all while negotiating the radicalness of her joy and two-spirited embodiment, when confronted with a brain tumor diagnosis.
With laughable sass, switchblade precision, and exquisite analysis, these coming-of-age-at-thirty essays turn womanhood, citizenship, and disability on their head. From a confrontation with TSA to sexual escapades with Ethical Fuckboys, these essays weave us through the multi-layered reality of a woman unwilling to surrender. Whether it’s critiquing the faulty strategies of citizen activists or differentiating a drag queen from a trans woman, shumarí does it with exquisite generosity, fists squared up, and a whole lot of eye rolling.
PRAISE FOR CHABÓCHI DOLL
“CHABÓCHI DOLL troubles the topography of womanhood through Trans Possibility & Undocumented archive making. Her essays are delightfully ‘long-winded interrogations’ & ‘anthropological approach to discovering what trauma still plagues’ feels more conversational than calculated. Confrontation wears lipstick. Indigeneity sings in primary hues. Narrative is collaged to frame the realities of the world. The world is ‘brighter & sweeter’ with féi iká shumarí existing in her nuance.”
—Jzl Jmz, Local Woman
“CHABÓCHI DOLL models literary self-love and community care. With this book, féi iká shumari has gifted us good medicine.”
—Myriam Gurba, Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings
“With sensuous lyricism, CHABÓCHI DOLL reckons with womanhood, theorizes the 2020s fuckboy, troubles the ghosts of statehood, and keeps going further. féi iká shumarí’s luminescent voice is both breezy and biting as she invites readers into soft imaginaries only to check your reality and ‘facilitate your undoing.’ I am undone.”
—Benedict Nguyễn, Hot Girls with Balls
Buy your copy here!
DEADLINE EXTENDED: QTBIPOC Book Award Prize
The deadline is now extended until July 15th, 2026. Thank you to everyone who has submitted and we can't wait to read your submissions!
For our first ever full-length fiction prize, Abode Press is looking to acquire fiction short story collections or novels written by people of color who are queer and/or trans. We want work that is voice driven, sparks social change, reminds us of home, and defies genre. We are especially interested in works that are haunting, that have a strong sense of place, that are queer, radical, and genre defiant. Some of the editorial teams favorite authors who do this remarkably well are Octavia Butler, Mariana Enriquez, Carmen Maria Machado, Toni Morrison, and Rivers Solomon. We also love when work is inspired from theorists, such as Audre Lorde and Saidiya Hartman.
The book award fiction prize is open until June 30th. We cannot wait to read your work. Guidelines and submission info here!
PREORDER: How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse
Pre orders are officially open for our next poetry chapbook title: How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse by Osmani R. Ochoa!
For readers who carry deep political conviction, live with chronic illness, or know the ache of loss and longing, How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse is a poetry chapbook that offers an intimate meditation on being human, and how breath—and breathlessness—reminds us that we are alive.
Praise for How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse
“In How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse, Ochoa masterfully merges violence, love, the physical body, and the earth into an undeniable crisis of breath. At the center of these poems is resistance against the future of this planet and of the speaker’s body—how amidst all this destruction there is love. Throughout these pages, we inhale and exhale history, borders, desire, and fire as each page is a leap into the next moment where every ‘Birth of a new ending / I was resurrected again.’ These poems remind us that where we begin and end are at the heart of survival.”
—Saúl Hernández, How to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024)
“Órale. From Hernán Cortes to Hurricane Harvey, from Los Bukis to Primer Impacto, brace for the first impact of Osmani R. Ochoa’s brilliant translingual debut. With heart-wrenching depth and ingenious humor, these poems are a gorgeous blend of pop culture nostalgia and luminous futurist gadgetry. This is a world where traditional remedios like copal and lemongrass coexist with lung bio USB chips and nano-inhalers. There is hope and healing here para nuestra gente. Adelante, Osmani.”
—Violeta Garza, Brava (First Matter Press, 2025)
“Ochoa’s poems take us through landscapes of survival, resistance, and hope. Each poem aches and yearns for the promise of full and unhindered breath as only someone who knows this battle can. The collection explores the connections between outer and inner existence, between bodies, souls, land, and the external forces that seek to suffocate and subjugate life. The possibility of a new dream and a new reality are bolstered by the bonds of family, love, and community.”
—César L. De León, Speaking with Grackles by Soapberry Trees (FlowerSong, 2021)
Preorder your copy here!
We Open for Chapbook Submissions on August 15th!
We open for our chapbook submission prize on August 15th! We will be accepting poetry chapbooks up to 30 pages and hybrid chapbooks up to 40 pages. We look forward to reading your submissions and thank you for sending your work to us!
Learn more about our chapbook prize here: Submissions | Abode Press
SAY HELLO TO OUR NEW SENIOR POETRY ACQUISITIONS EDITOR
We are so excited to welcome Isaac Salazar, who will be stepping into the Senior Poetry Acquisitions editor role after SG Huerta who is passing on the torch and did an incredible job leading the poetry section since our inception in 2023. We will miss SG dearly and wish them the best in their future endeavors, and we are incredibly excited to welcome Isaac into this new role, who has been with us since 2023. Isaac first started out as a Poetry Reader and was promoted to Assistant Poetry Editor, and is now Senior Poetry Acquisitions Editor. Congratulations, Isaac!
Abode Staff News!
We want to take a moment to acknowledge accomplishments in the Abode Press family.
Teri Vela’s microchap Triforce Sonnets is out today with fifthwheelpress for their Pride series.
August Chun has a piece in Prism Reports.
Congratulations to these Abode staff members!! Learn more about them on our Masthead page.
Thank you, as always, for your support! We love you!