Latitude

Natasha Rao's debut collection won the 2021 APR/Honickman First Book Prize, selected by Ada Limón, a Guggenheim Fellow.

The poems turn toward family, the question of where one belongs culturally, and the uneven work of growing up. Each one is built from concrete images of food, color and sound.

The tone shifts between exposed and daring, and desire runs through the book without apology. In one poem the speaker imagines a future life as a tomato, fearless about wanting and content to be taken into an eager mouth.