In her debut chapbook of poetry, Decipher the Smoke , Nora Gupta “scratch[es] through the pretty pink, the hot pink, the girly-girl pink universe” to reveal the true, indiscernible colors of girlhood. The browned bulb of childhood. The way bodies slither under white LED gas station lights into self-discovery. Through these poems, Gupta asks her reader to reckon with—and perhaps even decipher—the thinning line between girlhood and grief, one often stepped right over without second thought. Indeed, while reckoning with the simultaneous devastating loss of a close family member and realization of her own impending womanhood, Gupta navigates a world of escalation and apocalypse to uncover what—shade by shade—girlhood truly means to her. About the Author Nora Gupta is a student poet at the Bronx High School of Science. Her poems have appeared in Girls Right the World, Glassworks, Notre Dame Review, Sho Poetry Journal, The Spotlong Review, Zone 3 , and elsewhere. Her poetry and prose have received additional recognition by the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the National YoungArts Foundation, Princeton University, Gannon University, and Smith College, among others. Nora is also the editor-in-chief of Double Yolk , a publication featuring poets of color that shines a light on their creative processes. She lives in Queens, New York.