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Escaramuza

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About Escaramuza

Join an international expedition with three distinct narratives: one that explores the poet’s father's life as a laborer in California, the mother's domesticity in rural Zacatecas, and her own experience in Chicago. Mimicking the nature of oral tradition, Escaramuza—or a female Charro—is a debut chapbook of the highest caliber.

“A machete, as Mother was–

bleeding through a foam

that had previously birthed

only tortillas and our curt silence;

you can tell the difference between

when a bullet slices a cloud, and when

it makes a cavity out of a thigh, and then

steals the blue from your veins to, at once,

forge a pen, then write your will –”

2026 Chapbook Project: Spring Cohort.

The beginning of our newly instated Chapbook Corp is going monochrome. 4 authors (2 of whom are debutants in their respective genres) published at the same time for one massive chapbook cohort. Original artwork was hand-selected by our editor-in-chief for both the Fall and Spring cohorts. This project is what 10 years of chapbook publishing looks like. This is Thirty West.

30 pgs with a 5.5” x 8.5” trim size

Jacket Artwork by Oliva’s Ink Illustrations

Released on 4-24-26

For international orders greater than 2 units, please email us before ordering so we can calculate shipping. Thanks!

Edition Information

Standard edition comes in a hand-folded, saddle-stitched, or perfect-bound glue spine.

Limited edition comes in an artisanal, hemp cord binding of 20 numbered copies.

Want to experience the entire cohort at once? Go here for all 4 chapbooks, in a standard edition, for only $20 (shipping not included).

About Escaramuza

Join an international expedition with three distinct narratives: one that explores the poet’s father's life as a laborer in California, the mother's domesticity in rural Zacatecas, and her own experience in Chicago. Mimicking the nature of oral tradition, Escaramuza—or a female Charro—is a debut chapbook of the highest caliber.

“A machete, as Mother was–

bleeding through a foam

that had previously birthed

only tortillas and our curt silence;

you can tell the difference between

when a bullet slices a cloud, and when

it makes a cavity out of a thigh, and then

steals the blue from your veins to, at once,

forge a pen, then write your will –”

2026 Chapbook Project: Spring Cohort.

The beginning of our newly instated Chapbook Corp is going monochrome. 4 authors (2 of whom are debutants in their respective genres) published at the same time for one massive chapbook cohort. Original artwork was hand-selected by our editor-in-chief for both the Fall and Spring cohorts. This project is what 10 years of chapbook publishing looks like. This is Thirty West.

30 pgs with a 5.5” x 8.5” trim size

Jacket Artwork by Oliva’s Ink Illustrations

Released on 4-24-26

For international orders greater than 2 units, please email us before ordering so we can calculate shipping. Thanks!

Edition Information

Standard edition comes in a hand-folded, saddle-stitched, or perfect-bound glue spine.

Limited edition comes in an artisanal, hemp cord binding of 20 numbered copies.

Want to experience the entire cohort at once? Go here for all 4 chapbooks, in a standard edition, for only $20 (shipping not included).

About the Author

Author photo provided by Xiaohan Brunton

Esénia Bañuelos is a Mexican-American and Wixárika experimental prose poet from the East Side of Chicago, Illinois. She is a graduating senior in Linguistics at Bryn Mawr College. Her work traces her childhood in Chicagoland and celebrates diasporic Indigeneity, multilingualism, and the immigrant story. Her work has been published in The Chapter House Journal, Stanford University MANTIS, the North Dakota Quarterly, and more. This is Esénia’s debut chapbook.

Reviews

“Esénia Bañuelos is the next Ada Limón. This debut collection is hard-boiled with culture from the very first page. It is best described as a grown-up, poetic rendition of Esperanza Rising. A must-read.”

—BRIANNA BOOKER, Monrow County (PA) Poet Laureate

“In Escaramuza, Esénia Bañuelos explores relationships to home and family through Mexican-American food, iconography, and the sensory details of her childhood set in an experimentalist landscape where lines between the tangible and spiritual worlds mean far less than the blue deer & ode-singing guayabas of these meditative verses.”

—JENNIFER COMPANIK, editor at TriQuarterly and author of Check Engine and Other Stories

“Esénia Bañuelos' Escaramuza is a microcosm of snapshots that reveal the precision of endings and the hint of revival: the ending to the person that was, but the refusal to give up what Bañuelos' has become because of her experiences. Bañuelos touches on the very intimate portrayal of nature to cloak the spiritual awakening that comes through her Mexican culture and familiarity with a diverse color palette all around her. Bañuelos' manipulation of time and space encapsulated in the closeness of nature versus the spatial quality of her and her parents in this chapbook is what inspires a visceral reaction in the reader, especially in those readers who are entwined with Mexican culture and roots.”

—KINSEY KRACHINSKI, author of Zuri the Zebra and the Rainbow Race for Kindness