Biuty queens - Ivan Monalisa Ojeda

'An ode to New York City's queer and trans immigrant community... Ojeda, a Chilean American writer, brings sincerity and dark humor to tales of drug addiction, prison life at Rikers Island and a five-time beauty pageant winner, drawing from personal experience as a trans performer, sex worker and undocumented immigrant'
New York Times

'Can't get enough of Pose? Then Las Biuty Queens will be your new fave read... Ivan Monalisa Ojeda sparkles as one of 2021's boldest new writers'
Cosmopolitan


'The American dream as seen from the height of a good pair of heels' Pedro Almodvar
Las Biuty Queens: a group of trans Latinx immigrant friends who walk the streets of New York, smoke crystal meth, compete in beauty contests, look for clients on their impossibly high heels and fall prey to increasingly cruel immigration policies.

Drawing from his/her own perspective as a trans performer, sex worker and undocumented immigrant, acclaimed Chilean writer Ivn Monalisa Ojeda shines a light on a group of friends trying to survive the dark side of the American Dream and introduces readers to an unfamiliar, glittering and violent New York City that will draw them in and swallow them whole.

'This is New York, full of beauty and pain - turn away at your own peril'
Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

'You can't just read this book; you bathe in its grit, the resilience of its characters and, most of all, its beauty. Stunning'
Jose Antonio Vargas, author of Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen