Lucía Orellana-Damacela launches evocative chapbook ‘Inherent’.
Who or what defines us, and where do we belong? That is the question at the heart of Lucia Orellana-Damacela’s new chapbook. Infused with the sights, smells and sounds of her childhood in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Inherent explores female lineage and what is passed down through the generations, revealing the totality of nature and a pervasive love. For the poet, the past is intrinsically linked to the present, resurfacing at moments of change and connecting her back to her ancestry.
In her own words, the poet explores “the ongoing conversation between childhood memories and life transitions, including starting my own family far away from my home country.” For Orellana-Damacela: “Inherent traverses geographical and affective landscapes, inspired, largely, by the women in my lineage, particularly my grandmothers and my mother.”
Lila Zemborain, Poet, Critic and Professor at NYU, observed: “What is sought is the inevitable tracing of an ‘embroidered past’ embedded in remembrances from Ecuador, recipes and scents which are passed down to daughters, through objects or physical traits, such as a white tea set, an eyebrow, or the intrusion of an illness resonating in the light lingering after a storm in a distant part of the world.”
To pre-order ‘Inherent’ go to the Fly on the Wall shop: www.flyonthewallpoetry.co.uk, Waterstones online and all major retailers.