Creosote

Abstract

Creosote is a young adult fantasy novel braided with poetry, prose, and Spanish language that explores Latinx youths’ places in dystopian worlds. Decades after nuclear war has razed society in the southwestern United States, survivors live in pueblos built on water scarcity, community, and cultural legends. When teenagers Manu and Firelight learn that their pueblo is running out of water, they embark on a journey into the desert towards the mythical Great Wide Sea, an elusive, legendary ocean with the power to return water to their pueblo. But the journey through post-apocalyptic desert is anything but easy, and the two must confront their origins, their feelings towards each other, and the desert’s wild, hidden magic, if they hope to survive