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Dead Girl Cameo

A Love Song in Poems

Author m. mick powell
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Ebook
Random House Group | One World
On sale Aug 05, 2025 | 144 Pages | 9780593734001
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A dazzling docupoetic debut collection interweaving personal loss with the life stories of Aaliyah Haughton, Whitney Houston, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Phyllis Hyman, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, and others to explore sexuality, survival, queer mourning, and the afterlives of stardom

“Poet m. mick powell’s debut collection . . . resurrects their vivid lives and artistry to paint a more humanizing picture of their legacy.”—USA Today

“I made, of my bones, an earth for you: turned the oceans
your favorite shade of light, that deepened, nearly bruised
dusk. Reflected in my palms, what I’ve made into water
glows amethyst”

In m. mick powell’s polyphonic, haunting debut, a chorus of voices conjures up intimate pop herstories to map how the poet’s queer Black girlhood was molded by their memory. With tender reverence, powell meditates on the deaths of her own beloveds while reflecting on the many stages of an icon’s life: How did these women challenge conventional representations of Black femininity and transform the musical landscape? How did they navigate abuse and alienation in the limelight? How do the mythologies that survive them establish afterlives of queer femme possibility?

Through sensual imagery, speculative verse, and splendid wordplay, Dead Girl Cameo takes us beyond the headlines, innovating a Black feminist poetic that traverses the richly textured realms of grief, girlhood, love, widowing, femme friendship, and queer fandom.
dead girl interview

What gave you your girlhood? What took it away?
Where was your mother?
What do you see when I say “scarlet”?
Do you believe in the stars?
Are there other ways you wish you died?
Can you tell me again, about the dream?
And the morning after, when the moon set?
Tell me about your closest encounter.
When did you meet her?
She is the first person you thought of—how tenderly did you touch?
What world did you invent to survive?
What world did you invent to satiate?
Tell me about your own curious rage.
Finish the sentence: “in my archive of desire, I keep ________.”
What color is the thing that haunts you most?
Would you let me hold the memory?
Copyright © 2025 by m. mick powell. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
m. mick powell is a queer Black Cape Verdean femme, a poet, an artist, an Aries, and author of the chapbooks threesome in the last Toyota Celica and chronicle the body. Their poems have been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology and a Pushcart Prize, and appear in RHINO, Muzzle, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and elsewhere. mick is a professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut and an adjunct in Bay Path University’s MFA in creative nonfiction writing program. A former Tin House Resident, she enjoys chasing waterfalls and being in love. View titles by m. mick powell

About

A dazzling docupoetic debut collection interweaving personal loss with the life stories of Aaliyah Haughton, Whitney Houston, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Phyllis Hyman, Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, and others to explore sexuality, survival, queer mourning, and the afterlives of stardom

“Poet m. mick powell’s debut collection . . . resurrects their vivid lives and artistry to paint a more humanizing picture of their legacy.”—USA Today

“I made, of my bones, an earth for you: turned the oceans
your favorite shade of light, that deepened, nearly bruised
dusk. Reflected in my palms, what I’ve made into water
glows amethyst”

In m. mick powell’s polyphonic, haunting debut, a chorus of voices conjures up intimate pop herstories to map how the poet’s queer Black girlhood was molded by their memory. With tender reverence, powell meditates on the deaths of her own beloveds while reflecting on the many stages of an icon’s life: How did these women challenge conventional representations of Black femininity and transform the musical landscape? How did they navigate abuse and alienation in the limelight? How do the mythologies that survive them establish afterlives of queer femme possibility?

Through sensual imagery, speculative verse, and splendid wordplay, Dead Girl Cameo takes us beyond the headlines, innovating a Black feminist poetic that traverses the richly textured realms of grief, girlhood, love, widowing, femme friendship, and queer fandom.

Excerpt

dead girl interview

What gave you your girlhood? What took it away?
Where was your mother?
What do you see when I say “scarlet”?
Do you believe in the stars?
Are there other ways you wish you died?
Can you tell me again, about the dream?
And the morning after, when the moon set?
Tell me about your closest encounter.
When did you meet her?
She is the first person you thought of—how tenderly did you touch?
What world did you invent to survive?
What world did you invent to satiate?
Tell me about your own curious rage.
Finish the sentence: “in my archive of desire, I keep ________.”
What color is the thing that haunts you most?
Would you let me hold the memory?
Copyright © 2025 by m. mick powell. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Author

m. mick powell is a queer Black Cape Verdean femme, a poet, an artist, an Aries, and author of the chapbooks threesome in the last Toyota Celica and chronicle the body. Their poems have been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology and a Pushcart Prize, and appear in RHINO, Muzzle, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and elsewhere. mick is a professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Connecticut and an adjunct in Bay Path University’s MFA in creative nonfiction writing program. A former Tin House Resident, she enjoys chasing waterfalls and being in love. View titles by m. mick powell

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