Description
Winner of the Barry Spacks Poetry Prize, Color Advisory Board is Michele Santamaría’s first book of poetry. Pre-order available now! (Publication date April 13, 2026)
“Color Advisory Board ruthlessly interrogates mythmaking with vivid precision. The myths of classic cinema, the myths of family history, the myths of femininity, the myths of beauty, the myths of whiteness—all are fair game for explosion in Santamaría’s poems: “when have we let lies / stop us from coloring the world as we like?” I love how she reaches back into that primal fantasy world of Old Hollywood and exposes how these Technicolor illusions still shape the stories we tell about ourselves. How often do we dab a little extra lipstick on the truth, adjust the lighting to make our pasts more palpable? Michele Santamaría knows, and isn’t afraid to go in for the close-up: “To what degree / Are you alive / Because someone / Decided to be / Selfish, not just run / But throw somebody else / down from the walls / While screaming / Not me, not me, not me.”
—Nicky Beer, author of Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes
“In Color Advisory Board, familial tensions are rendered in captivating language, in lines that resonate with music, emotions. I was struck by the ingenious use of Technicolor film and Rita Hayworth to make visible how racism disfigures individuals, poisons society. Michele Santamaría has deftly distilled history and science into poetry. I will remember the stunning sonnet crown and the powerful poems about raising a son. What an inventive and memorable book.”
—Eduardo Corral, author of Slow Lightning
Michele Santamaría received her MFA in poetry from University of Oregon, her MLitt in anthropology from University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and her MS in Library Science from Long Island University. Michele’s poems are informed by these diverse fields of study and by her experiences living in and between the Americas. Michele’s poems have appeared or will appear in Rhino, Harpur Palate, The Shore, The Canary, Bellingham Review, and Cimarron Review, among others. She received a scholarship from the Breadloaf Writer’s Conference, served as a poetry reader for Clemson University’s South Carolina Review, and served as a senior poetry reader for Washington College’s Cherry Tree. Michele has also taught poetry to all age groups. As a poet-librarian, Michele published a chapter about poet-librarianship in Poet-Librarians in the Library of Babel and co-wrote a book about teaching research through social media engagement. She lives with her family in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and works at Millersville University as the Learning Design & Student Engagement Librarian, prioritizing the role of wonder in students’ research process. Her website is www.michelesantamaria.com.
