“Just as the moon pushes away, it also tethers. And just as a bustling home can pull, so does grief permeate the nuanced gains and losses of life. In Daniela Paraguya Sow’s Half Moon Rising, the speaker, who is mixed race, often feels that ‘half is never quite whole.’ However, although the ‘moon / and earth will never touch,’ the poet’s lush language describes a wholeness achieved through personal blossoming, even in straddling two identities at once. Sow’s lilting, melodic lines mimic lunar pushes and pulls, and ‘there is loud light to be found in these varying versions of home,’ despite hurt, shame, or distrust. This gorgeous collection speaks to how home and identity are much more than what is given to us: how home can be something we as humans pull to ourselves, even as it seems to push further away.”

- Ina Cariño, author of Feast

“Vulnerable, empowered, profound–Half Moon Rising poignantly pirouettes through phases of darkness and light: devastating loss, reckonings with family and identity, sustaining wonders, connections that endure. Daniela Paraguya Sow is a poet attuned to the music and magic of language and form. Whether conjuring the lush city-and-seascapes of California and the Philippines, the stark luminosity of illness and grief, the incandescence of fury, or the ‘loud light’ of home, each poem is a gift for both senses and soul. In a heartbreaking poem in which her dead mother visits her in a dream, Sow writes: ‘Perhaps only she knows how magnificent my wings can get, brushing up against death.’ But after reading this radiant debut, it is crystal-clear to me how magnificently this poet can soar!”

- Erin Rodoni, author of And If the Woods Carry You, A Landscape for Loss, and Body, in Good Light

“Daniela Paraguya Sow artfully navigates a world where being multiracial often leads to conflict and isolation, but also embraces company with loved ones, like a loyal brother and charming lola. With sharp, efficient language, Sow cleverly explores ‘how fragile we are’ amidst complex familial relationships and the inevitable passage of time. This is a serene, rich book about family, legacy, immigration and triumph—I highly recommend it!”

- Jose Hernandez Diaz, author of The Fire Eater and Bad Mexican, Bad American