Heat Death of the Universe by Leela Raj-Sankar

Heat Death of the Universe is an exploration of adolescence in the desert. Spanning themes of race, illness, love, and loss, these poems are deeply somatic and regionally grounded. At its core, Heat Death of the Universe is a collection about the body and its long, dizzy slide from childhood to adulthood.

Leela Raj-Sankar is a high schooler from Arizona. She is a 2022 nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Anthology. Her writing has appeared in magazines such as CLOVES Literary, Overheard, and Gastropoda Lit, among others. She's a poetry reader for Farside Review and an editor for Renaissance Review. In her spare time, she enjoys singing and playing board games.