Lozada-Oliva, Melissa: Dreaming of You: A Novel in Verse

Astra House, paperback

Publication Date: September 27, 2022

Publisher Marketing: NOW IN PAPERBACK FEATURING A SHORT STORY FROM THE FORTHCOMING COLLECTION BEYOND ALL REASONABLE DOUBT, JESUS IS ALIVE

A macabre love story that casts an inquisitive eye on Latinidad, womanhood, and celebrity worship.
--Keely Weiss, Harper's Bazaar

Melissa Lozada-Oliva's surreal novel-in-verse is sure to delight and surprise readers . . .
You may know and love Selena's voice, but Lozada-Oliva's is utterly new, original,
and worth hearing, too. --Elena Nicolaou, Oprah Daily

A macabre novel in verse of loss, longing, and identity crises following a poet who resurrects pop star Selena from the dead.

Melissa Lozada-Oliva's Dreaming of You is an absurd yet heartfelt examination of celebrity worship.

A young Latinx poet grappling with loneliness and heartache decides one day to bring Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla back to life. The séance kicks off an uncanny trip narrated by a Greek chorus of gossiping spirits as she journeys through a dead celebrity prom, encounters her shadow self, and performs karaoke in hell.

In visceral poems embodying millennial angst, paragraph-long conversations overheard at her local coffeeshop, and unhinged Twitter rants, Lozada-Oliva reveals an eerie, sometimes gruesome, yet moving love story.

Playfully morbid and profoundly candid, an interrogation of Latinidad, womanhood, obsession, and disillusionment, Dreaming of You grapples with the cost of being seen for your truest self.