Author Archive

Death, Rebirth, and Selfhood in Dreaming of You

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In Melissa Lozada-Oliva’s debut novel, a Latina poet brings Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla back to life through a séance . . . the book brilliantly challenges the limits of one’s selfhood and reveals what’s lost when it’s contorted to fit the beholder’s gaze.

The Illusion of Progress in American Estrangement by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

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Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s new story collection offers a reality uncanny to ours today.

Eat the Mouth That Feeds You by Carribean Fragoza

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In her debut collection, Fragoza imagines a world where patriarchy can be eradicated and finds beauty in how Chicanx women come together.

The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata by Gina Apostol

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Gina Apostol’s novel, which demands the reader’s active participation, is filled with both humorous and serious moments, references to itself, as well as political and literary history.

Cockfight by María Fernanda Ampuero

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Ampuero enters into critical dialogue with form and substance. Combining structures reminiscent of fairy tales and horror films, Ampuero upends these conventions by reversing tropes and decentering the male gaze.

The Criminal Child by Jean Genet

Genet operated in social structures in order to subvert them, to explore and craft beauty from the darkest corners of modern civilization. While most artists can only imagine a prison sentence, prostitution, ecstasy, or evil, Genet lived through these experiences and, in some cases, sought them out.

Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo

In his new memoir, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo writes his family’s story into the history books of immigration.

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Coates’ debut novel builds stories within stories, revisiting pre-Civil War America through the eyes of a survivor of the slave trade.

The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa

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Ogawa could have written a political thriller but opts instead for a closer look at communities under siege by the very political forces that should be protecting them.

This Land is My Land, Not Yours

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Hernán Díaz returns to the California Gold Rush in his 2017 novel, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He shows an America in transition, fixated on the promise of prosperity, power, and property.