from “The Picture Pines”

Christine Imperial is a poet and writer based in Oakland, California. She is currently a PhD student in cultural studies at UC Davis, where she was the recipient of a Deans’ Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. Her debut book, Mistaken for an Empire: A Memoir in Tongues (Mad Creek Books, 2023), was awarded the 2021 Gournay Prize. She holds an MFA from CalArts, where she was a 2020–21 REEF Fellow. Her work has been published in Poets & Writers, Inverted Syntax, TLDTD, and Poetry, among others.