Everyday Chica, by Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés

The everyday chica in Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes’ Everyday Chica is Jersey girl, disco queen, and quinceanera as well as keen cultural critic. Rodriguez Milanes came of age within and apart from two cultural traditions, and her all-too-brief collection of coming-of-age poems takes us from New Jersey to Cuba and back again, with forays into family and cultural history, in language which is exuberant, funny, and tender. –Stephanie Brown