«Fish Tail»: The Memories of an «Urban Mermaid» Redefining Queer Identity in Chilean Poetry

In Fish Tail, journalist and writer Emilio Morán presents a visceral and intimate work that navigates gender identity, social marginalization, and romance.

Through 31 poems that function cyclically, the author reconstructs his biography from the «dampness of dirty sheets» and the nights in Concepción, providing a testimony in which the speaker is neither a hero nor a victim, but rather someone in constant conflict with their environment and their own body.

The narrative, crafted in a confessional and narrative style, invites a necessary conversation about «hybrid identity.»

In this way, Morán employs the figure of the mermaid—drawn from the tragic origins in Andersen’s work—as a metaphor for those who do not fit traditional molds, existing in a margin where one can be «too much of a man for some and too much of a woman for others.»

The work is part of a new generation of dissident literature aiming to reclaim «strangeness» and indefiniteness against institutional labels: «I sought to defend the weird fish that got lost in the institutional effort to make minorities an aesthetic copy of the majorities,» comments the author.

«For me, publishing this book has been a relief, a way to release the most primal and raw aspects of my literary anxieties to feel clean and blank again,» adds the writer.

Multimedia Proposal

The poetry collection, which arose as a refuge against the lack of expressive spaces during the author’s childhood, also incorporates an innovative multimedia proposal.

«The book includes handwritten manuscripts and a Spotify playlist, accessible via QR code, featuring artists like Francisca Valenzuela, Jorge González, and Shakira, designed to set the mood for reading and create specific atmospheres for each narrative,» state the team at Editorial Trayecto, responsible for publishing the work.

Fish Tail is ultimately an invitation to traverse a runway between the personal and the collective, where social denunciation retains its emotional weight. With honesty and vulnerability, the work expands the horizons of contemporary Chilean poetry, rescuing the beauty found in the marginal and the unclassifiable.

Emilio Senn Morán (Biobío Region, 2000) is a journalist, writer, and audiovisual producer. He has developed his career in media covering culture, entertainment, and human rights, with a special emphasis on the memory of the LGBTIQA+ community.

Fish Tail is his first individual publication, following his participation in anthologies like The Odious Widows of Lemebel.

Meanwhile, Trayecto is a rapidly growing independent Chilean publishing house, with over 350 titles published. It is notable for hosting the world’s first bookstore located inside a subway station (Metro de Santiago) and for its commitment to discovering new creative voices in the national literary market.