I love a good chat
Whether is an interview or working with a colleague, I love a good chat. Below are some examples of recent collaborations.
We Are Raging + We Are Still Here
During what was the worst time for me during the Covid19 pandemic, I chatted with Megan Pillow for her column Submerged. I was mad, completely burned out, and filled with #momguilt.
Review of Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks
I joined forces with WCU Professor, Emily Aguiló-Pérez, PhD to write a review for the academic journal The Lion and the Unicorn vol 44, number 3, analyzing the work of Trevor Boffone and Cristina Herrera in Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx and Latinx Young Adult Literature.
Interview with Latinx Lit Magazine
Teresa Douglas invited me to talk about my short story Amalgam, for her audio magazine. You can find the behind the scenes segment as well as an audio of me reading the fiction below.
Chats with Authors
Velvet Was the Night
Silvia Moreno Garcia takes us to Mexico City in the ’70s where we meet Maite, a secretary oblivious of the political unrest and student protests surrounding the city. For Maite, what matters are the romance comics she buys every week and the rock’n’roll vinyl she collects. Her simple life changes when Leonora, the beautiful art student living in her building, appears with the keys to her apartment asking Maite to watch her cat for a few days. When Leonora doesn’t return, Maite sets out to find her and involuntarily entangles herself with a group of dissidents.
Olga Dies Dreaming
Latina author Xochitl Gonzalez debuted in the literary world with unapologetic words in her novel Olga Dies Dreaming (Flatiron Books, 2022). If Olga reads like your cousin or your best friend, it is because she has a soul. Gonzalez poured her whole self into the pages of her book, paying homage to her grandparents, childhood friends, and neighborhood, in the way the things that live inside us present themselves in everything we do.
Does My Body Offend You?
Co-authors Mayra Cuevas and Marie Marquardt met at a conference while pursuing their love for writing, and quickly became critique partners and friends. Their dreams in common and their individual goals brought them to write about activism and social justice by way of their ultra-realistic characters in their YA novel Does My Body Offend You? (Penguin Random House, 2022).
Lotería
Mexico is magical. This is what author Karla Arenas Valenti shows her readers in her middle grade novel Lotería (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2021). In Valenti’s pages magic and real life coexist in perfect harmony. Life and Death walk the streets of Oaxaca City immerse in the old philosophical argument of freewill versus fate. They stop from time-to-time to play a game of Lotería –the very game that will change Clara’s life forever.
The Curse on Spectacle Key
The Curse on Spectacle Key (Balzer + Bray, 2022) is a spooky-sweet middle grade novel by the great storyteller, Chantel Acevedo, who most recently had gifted us with the Muse Squad novels. Acevedo tells a perfect ghost story sprinkled with Cuban American and Southern culture for readers between grades 3-7.