body of water by Chestina Craig. 36-page, perfect bound chapbook of poetry and photography. Available through Sadie Girl Press Bookstore.
“When you are a girl, you are born with a heavy that manifests in your arms and legs, in the hole in your stomach, and in the swells of your tongue. Craig gives a name to these manifestations. All these poems were born in the ocean or were born in her heart; sometimes I think both of these are the same. She counts the heavy, knows it, faces it, loves it in all the forms in comes into a woman’s body and somehow gives them words.” ~Farah Billah, author of Wrong Turns Lead Here
“In her poems, Chestina guides the reader through personal narrative with a sharp imagination that both shocks & surprises at every turn. I find myself discovering something new on every page—about the natural world, about love on one’s own terms, & about the celebration of self. Her poems are vulnerable & massive at the same time as she unpacks what it means to live & stay alive. She is unafraid to affirm her own right to take up space & she does so with a “knife-in-boot confidence” that is entirely her own.” ~Brandon Melendez, Berkeley Grand Slam Champion
“Chestina is a nuanced voice in the burgeoning poetry renaissance in Long Beach, California. Her work serves as a backdrop of landscapes natural and cerebral with the most intrinsic f-words laced intentionally throughout. She’s dope, read her words.” ~Antonio Cortez Appling, founder of The Long Beach Poetry Slam
Chestina Craig lives in Long Beach, CA with her cat. Her work has been published in Black Napkin Press, The Rising Phoenix Review, KINGS ZINE, L’EPHEMERE Review, Femme Fotale (photography), Button Poetry and others. She has presented her work at The President’s Commission on The Status of Women, The Young Women’s Empowerment Conference, The CSUF Social Justice Summit, Glassless Minds Open Mic, The Santa Cruz Word Church, and more. She also has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology, and on occasion pets sharks and hangs out with octopuses. Other talents include winning over the love of cats, eating whole pizzas, and falling in love with the glow of the sunset. She hopes that one day she will only be required to wear gauzy clothing, swim in the ocean’s swell, and get paid to have too many feelings. Chestina has work included in 
Elmast Kozloyan is a poet trapped in limbo between magic and reality (though seldom chooses the latter). At the age of fifteen won the silver medal for poetry in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and since then has released her debut chapbook, 
Sadie Girl Press 