Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight: India Lena González
This monthly series features poems by women of color in the early stages of their publishing careers. It is our intention to create more space at Perugia for the work of poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). We hope using our platform to highlight this work will expand the readership of the poets we spotlight. This series aligns with Perugia’s mission to celebrate and support emerging women poets, inclusive of gender-expansive identities; featured poems will be from poets with no more than one published full-length collection. We’d love to hear from readers with suggestions for poems & poets to feature.
October 2025 Poet: India Lena González
desert room #1 (ten thousand waves spa)
we drove higher up. three feet away from night sky & stripped to our skins.
in the women's communal tub everyone was bared.
shea did leg exercises underwater.
i laid out rib on wooden floor. stuck leaves to my chest.
twin plunged into cold water & tested how long she could stay in
until her nerves gave out. we all ended staring up.
the sky is a perineal laceration out west.
in the grand bath there were men & a waterfall.
i moved my feet back & forth in the warm water.
i was still a watercolor from the dislodged blueberries of morning.
it was hard not to feel tender when i was constantly being tenderized.
it was hard not to call all the bodies jiggling around in their skins dear.
we were all a litter beginning to grow light. our eyes a haze.
bones not fully baked.
before my shower i saw a man writing messages onto little foam cups.
i asked him if he was a poet.
he said we're all sand in the end.
the decomposition of your face will be a sad thing.
i told him i'm getting cremated.
he stopped his scribble to glance up at me.
he pointed at my navel & said very cute cut.
he pointed at my head & said ahhh the globe.
Source
fox woman get out!, BOA Editions, 2023. Credit line: “desert room #1 (ten thousand waves spa)” from fox woman get out! by India González (BOA Editions, 2023).
Poet Bio
India Lena González is a poet, editor, and multidisciplinary artist. She received her BA from Columbia University and her MFA from New York University. Her work is published in American Chordata, the Brooklyn Review, Harvard Review, Lampblack Magazine, Literary Hub, PANK, Pigeon Pages, Poetry Northwest, and the Washington Post, among others, and it has been featured on the Slowdown podcast. fox woman get out! (BOA Editions, 2023), chosen by Aracelis Girmay as part of the Blessing the Boats Selections, is her debut poetry collection and was a finalist for Poetry Society of America’s 2024 Norma Farber First Book Award. A three-time National Poetry Series finalist, India is also a professional dancer, award-winning choreographer, and actor and has had the pleasure of performing at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, St. Mark’s Church, La Mama, New York Live Arts, and other such venues. She has taught at Columbia University and NYU, as well as at the New York Public Library, and has worked as an instructor for Teachers & Writers Collaborative. She currently serves as the Features Editor of Poets & Writers Magazine.