The wonderful team at Apparition Literary Magazine gave me one of my earliest science fiction story sales in their Ambition issue, and I’m thrilled that now they’ve included my SF poem “Backward Compatibility (Quinceañera on a Generation Ship)” in the Nostalgia issue! 

In writing this poem, I took inspiration from the (non-speculative) poet Naomi Shihab Nye.  I love how conversational and accessible her work is, while still leaving the reader with a sense of depth behind the words.  I don’t know if I came anywhere close in striving toward that balance, but I sure enjoyed myself in the process. 

While I was working on it, I also interviewed my dad about his memories of attending fiestas de quinceañeras.  His anecdotes ran the gamut from hilarious to bittersweet.  It was our own form of connecting across time.