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Book Deal: CRIME SCENE by Cynthia Pelayo

RDSP Signs Poetry Collection Crime Scene by Award-winning Cina Pelayo

Raw Dog Screaming Press is excited to announce a finalized book deal for a new poetry collection, Crime Scene, by Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo, an International Latino Book Award-winning and two-time Bram Stoker Award® nominated poet and author. It is set to be published later this year.

In Crime Scene, Special Agent K is called to the discovery of the skeletal remains of a child located in a forest. As the investigation unfolds, memory and grueling present are at conflict throughout this poem told in narrative verse, inspired by the classical styles of epic poetry of heroic journeys. Names, dates, people, and events are told in minimalist styles in Crime Scene, as placeholders for all the uncertainties and unknowns which occur during a missing and murdered person case.

Crime Scene follows Pelayo’s Bram Stoker Award® and Elgin nominated 2020 poetry release by Burial Day Books, Into The Forest And All The Way Through, which features true crime poetry that explores the cases of over one hundred missing and murdered women in the United States

“I’m grateful to work with Raw Dog Screaming Press on this new collection,” Pelayo said. “They champion artists, creative experimentation and exploration, and I am thrilled this work has found a home here. After Into the Forest… I had so much more to say. I needed a way out, and the only path forward was to tell an original tale in narrative verse, a crime story through poetry.”

“She dreams

Of shimmering

Dead girls…”

      –Crime Scene

Award-winning small press RDSP is proud to have worked with Pelayo previously. They currently publish her 2016 poetry collection in their catalogue, Poems of My Night. It was nominated for an International Latino Book Award and an Elgin Award. “We’re huge fans of Pelayo’s work whether it’s prose or poetry there are so many layers to what she writes and this collection in particular has a mesmerizing quality that is hard to look away from,” says managing editor Jennifer Barnes.

Praise for Into the Forest And All The Way Through –

“This book shook me, ripped my heart out, and haunts me still. Into the Forest and All the Way Through shines a harsh light on a subject society has been far too content to ignore… and it’s about goddamn time. This Is a vital collection.”

-Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award® -winning author of Sour Candy.

“This is not an easy book to read. It will shatter your heart, and anyone who has experienced life as a woman will know all too intimately the fear in these pages, the choking dread of what could happen if I go for a walk too late, go to the grocery store at night, find myself some place at the wrong time…”

-Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Awards® -winning poet of The Devil’s Dreamland, author, and editor

“For readers of mystery and true crime, this is a heartbreaking but important read as it gives voice to the missing and the murdered, the lost and the afraid. By no means is this collection an easy read, but Pelayo approaches the subject matter with compassion, honesty, and an urgency that begs people to wake up, to speak out, and to continue to have hard conversations with their children and loved ones.”

– Stephanie Wytovich, Bram Stoker Awards®-winning poet, novelist, essayist, author, and editor.

Cina Pelayo, Biography –

Cynthia “Cina” Pelayo is an International Latino Book Award-winning and two-time Bram Stoker Award® nominated poet and author.

She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, and Poems of My Night, all of which have been nominated for International Latino Book Awards. Poems of My Night was also nominated for an Elgin Award. Her recent collection of poetry, Into The Forest And All The Way Through, explores true crime, that of the epidemic of missing and murdered women in the United States, and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award and Elgin Award.

Her modern-day horror retelling of the Pied Piper fairy tale, Children of Chicago, was released by Agora / Polis Books, and won an International Latino Book Award for Best Mystery (2021).

She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Columbia College, a Master of Science in Marketing from Roosevelt University, a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Business Psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Cina was raised in inner city Chicago, where she lives with her husband and children.

Find her online at http://www.cinapelayo.com/and on Twitter @cinapelayo.

She is represented by Lane Heymont at Tobias Literary.

Raw Dog Screaming Press –

Explore Raw Dog Screaming Press online or find us on most social media platforms. Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date on all our news and new releases.

Media –

Review copies when available can be obtained upon request, and interview inquiries can be coordinated, through Erin Al-Mehairi, publicist, at hookofabook@hotmail.com or twitter or Instagram (@erinalmehairi).

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