The Last Town Before the Mojave by Nathan Xavier Osorio

Selected and Introduced by Oliver de la Paz

In Nathan Xavier Osorio’s remarkable chapbook, the dizzying ghosts of the heated pavement and the endless cars backed up on the I-5 and the I-405 blur by, baked in the heat of the Southern California sun. We are constantly reminded of our commodity culture and the morass of accumulations—the stacks and stacks of canned goods at the grocery store and the burden of those who are the unseen and unacknowledged caretakers of the privileged quotidian.

—Oliver de la Paz

Edition: 500 copies of the winning books were printed by the Prolific Group and designed by Gabriele Wilson, with covers by Jessica Nielsen.