Estela, Undrowning

In her raw and resonant debut novel, René Peña-Govea seamlessly interweaves prose and poetry to uplift the power of language, the courage to fight injustice, and the complex beauty of finding your people—perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X and Carolina Ixta’s Shut Up, This is Serious.

Estela Morales is one of the only Latinas who tested into San Francisco’s most exclusive public high school. In her senior year, Estela just wants to keep her head down, eke out a passing grade from her racist Spanish teacher, and get into her dream college.

But after placing second in the Latiné Heritage Poetry Contest behind a non-Latino student, Estela is thrust into citywide debates about merit, identity, and diversity.

Things only get messier when her family is threatened with eviction. As Estela’s friends organize against bigotry and her landlady increases the pressure, Estela is suffocating and finds release only in poetry and in a breathless new romance. When tensions finally reach their breaking point, Estela must find a way to undrown the community she loves—and herself.

Author Biography

René Peña-Govea is a Chicana writer, musician, and educator who was born and raised in San Francisco and still lives there with her family. She published her first poem and released her first album at age fifteen. Since then, she has been named an inaugural Bay Beats musician, a YBCA-100 Honoree, a Las Musas Hermana, a Brown-Handler Resident, and a Creative-in-Residence at the Ruby. René performs music with three generations of La Familia Peña-Govea and as René y Familia. Estela, Undrowning is her first novel.