Author Spotlight: SG Huerta

Burns by SG Huerta | Sundress Publications | January 20, 2026 | Pages: 102 | ISBN: 978-1-951979-87-4

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How did your relationship with your family influence your writing?

In some poems like “Mi tía texts me,” I write what (I feel) I can’t say out loud to family. I feel like

a lot of things that have happened in our lives are taboo or people just don’t want to talk about it,

and that frustration turned into fuel for poems.

A lot of my poems are also about my dad’s death. Writing poems about memories only he and I

shared became a way to preserve those memories more concretely. Or maybe these poems are

séance.

How did writing this book transform you?

Writing about the past was a way to burn away some of the experiences that I write about. This

process is partly why I titled the book Burns. The editing process in particular showed the

distance between the self I was when writing the poems versus who I am now. In that way, the

book feels like a time capsule of my early 20s.

Did another artform influence this work?

I am heavily influenced by music! Some influences for Burns include Modern Baseball,

Slaughter Beach, Dog, Kid Cudi, The Front Bottoms, Say Anything, and Frank Ocean. There

are a lot of poems “after” some of these artists.

You can often tell a lot about a book by how it begins and how it ends. What is the first line and

last line of your book?

The first line, from the poem “Puberty II,” is “I never wanted any of this:”. The last line, from the

poem “Texan Sonnet” is “texas summers burning & burning & burn.”

Outside of writing, what are some of your passions or hobbies?

I love making zines, playing guitar, and reading tarot. However, these hobbies tend to tie back to

writing in some way. Tarot especially can be a powerful way to channel creative energy.

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SG Huerta is a queer Xicanx writer and organizer. They are a Roots Wounds Words Fellow and Tin House alum. They are the author of the nonfiction chapbook GOOD GRIEF (fifth wheel press 2025) and their debut poetry collection Burns is out with Sundress Publications as of January 2026. SG’s work has appeared in Honey Literary, The Offing, Infrarrealista Review, and elsewhere. Find them at sghuertawriting.com, or in Tejas with their partner and cats, working towards liberation for oppressed peoples everywhere. They encourage you to find tangible ways to support Palestinian liberation.