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ASMA KHALID: Selena Quintanilla is having a moment again. Twenty-six years after her murder, the Tejano pop star's face adorns T-shirts and hoodies. She's the subject of a Netflix series and a podcast.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COMO LA FLOR")
SELENA QUINTANILLA-PEREZ: (Singing in Spanish).
ASMA KHALID: And now in a new book from Melissa Lozada-Oliva, Selena is coming back from the dead. "Dreaming Of You" is the new novel in verse by the poet and educator who joins us now from New York City. Welcome to the show, Melissa.
MELISSA LOZADA-OLIVA: Thank you for having me.
ASMA KHALID: So I have got to start by asking the obvious question. Is it fair to say that you are a Selena fan?
MELISSA LOZADA-OLIVA: Yes, I am definitely a Selena fan.
ASMA KHALID: Tell me more.
MELISSA LOZADA-OLIVA: Well, I mean, I think, yeah, all of this kind of started with me, like, trying to deconstruct, like, what it meant for me to be a Selena fan. I feel like I grew up, like, under the umbrella of her life right after she died. And so much of, like, being her fan was also, like, wanting to look like her. And I remember just feeling, like, so beautiful whenever I, like, kind of looked like Selena.
ASMA KHALID: And you're talking about, like, the big hoop earrings, the red lipstick...
MELISSA LOZADA-OLIVA: Oh, yeah.
ASMA KHALID: ...The whole look, all of that, yes.
MELISSA LOZADA-OLIVA: Yeah.
ASMA KHALID: So you are 29, right?
MELISSA LOZADA-OLIVA: Mmm hmm.
ASMA KHALID: And because you are 29, I mean, that means that Selena has been dead for most of your life.
MELISSA LOZADA-OLIVA: Yeah.
ASMA KHALID: And yet you've written this book all about her. So talk to us about what she means today to people who have no recollection of her music or her vibe from when she was actually alive - I mean, someone like yourself?
MELISSA LOZADA-OLIVA: Yeah. I mean, it's so weird, like, kind of falling in love with somebody and them being completely gone. And it's so weird just having a person...