The publishing world is slowly diversifying, and we can now read books from all over the world and get new perspectives. We can learn about cultures, history, mythology, etc., from around the world, and it all expands our own mindsets. Here are new Hispanic and Latinx authors who debuted this year, ones who are sharing their voices and cultures with us all.
Andrew Boryga
Boryga started his writing career at 16 when he wrote for a Bronx newspaper. He’s written for many newspapers since, including The New Yorker, the Times, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and more. He’s also taught writing, both fiction, and nonfiction, to students and incarcerated men and lectured about what writing life is like to students. You can visit his author website here.
Victim follows a man named Javier Perez, a hustler from a hustler family. He uses this and his background and molds them in the right way to get an academic scholarship to a prestigious university so he can chase his dream of being a famous writer. At college, he exaggerates his story until there’s no truth, which is only known by his childhood friend Gio, with whom he occasionally exchanges letters. An essay of his goes viral, and he becomes a journalist at an incredible magazine for his “unique perspective.” Javier offers to let Gio in on the deal, but will he play along or bring everything crumbling down?
Marcela Fuentes
Fiction writer and essayist Marcela Fuentes’s work has appeared in multiple journals, including the Indiana Review, Kenyon Review, Texas Highways Magazine, and others. She won the Pushcart Prize and was the 2016-2017 James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. You can visit her author website here.
Malas starts in 1951 when a mysterious old woman confronts Pilar Aguirre in La Cienega, Texas. The woman thinks Pilar stole her husband, and she puts a curse on her and her family. Decades later, Lulu Muñoz is trying to dodge chaos everywhere, from her father’s moods and rules to her double life as a singer in a punk band and her quinceañera. At her beloved grandmother’s funeral, she is attracted to a glamorous stranger, and their unexpected kinship brings up Lulu’s family’s past. As her quinceañera comes closer, she has to embrace her future, and the stranger must accept her past.
Melissa Mogollon
Mogollon has an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a BA from George Washington University. She was originally from Colombia but raised in Florida, and now in Rhode Island, teaching at a boarding school. You can visit her author website here.
Her novel, Oye, follows Luciana, who’s used to being on the sidelines as the baby of a big Colombian-American family. But when her grandmother, Abue, refuses to evacuate from a hurricane, she’s the sole voice of reason. Abue is in her own world, but she and Luciana are the only ones who get each other. So when her grandmother gets a sudden medical diagnosis, her world changes. They share a room, and Abue’s strange demands and unpredictability distract her from her misguided mother, uncertain future, and absent sister. Acting as caretaker, translator, and keeper of family secrets from Abue thrusts Luciabna in the middle, staring at adulthood — and she rises to the occasion.
Sofia Robleda
Robleda grew up in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. She got both her undergraduate and doctorate degrees in psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia. She’s now in the UK as a psychologist who works to support people with brain injuries and neurological conditions while also splitting her time to write and raise her son. She’s been writing since she was nine and writing fiction novels since 2013. You can visit her author website here.
In Daughter of Fire, Catalina de Cerrato is being raised by her father, Don Alonso, in Guatemala in 1551, barely 30 years after the Spanish invasion. Don Alonso is a ruling member of the Spanish hierarchy, and he has influence over the lower class of Indigenous communities. Catalina struggles to honor her father and late mother, a Maya noblewoman. She made a vow to her mother: preserve the lost sacred text of the Popol Vuh, the treasured and now-forbidden history of the K’iche’ people. With her grandmother’s spirit voice and photographic memory, Catalina sets on a quest to rewrite the Popol Vuh. She meets Juan de Rojas, a former lord who may be an ally. But as they fall in love, Don Alonso’s tranny worsens, and Catalina is forced to reckon with her conflicted heritage if she wants to finish her quest.
María Alejandra Barrios Vélez
Vélez, a writer and educator, has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester. Her work has appeared in magazines such as Cosmonauts Avenue, Fractured Lit, Reservoir Journal, and Jellyfish Review, among others. She also teaches classes at Gotham Writers, Paragraph NY, and Catapult, as well as other places. You can visit her author website here.
The Waves Take You Home follows Violeta Sanoguera, who has always done what she’s told. She left her lover in Colombia to make a better life because her mother and grandmother disapproved of him. She chases her dreams in New York City with a new love, establishing a new life. But everything changes when her grandmother suddenly dies, and Violeta goes back to Colombia. Her grandmother’s ghost accompanies her, sending messages and signs. Violeta discovers she’s the heir to the failing family restaurant — the same one her grandmother told her to run from. She embarks on a journey to rediscover herself, her home, and reconnect with an old love.
Ruben Reyes Jr.
Reyes is the son of Salvadoran immigrants. He earned his MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He graduated from Harvard College, where he studied History, literature, and Latinx Studies. His work has appeared in publications like Audible Originals, The Washington Post, Strange Horizons, and others. You can visit his author website here.
There is a Rio Grande in Heaven is a story collection that explores what people would do if they suddenly woke up and had unrecognizable lives. We see a regular man who one day wakes up and finds out he’s a famous reggaetón star. An older woman slowly becomes a puppet. A struggling academic realizes the terrible cost of being a Self-Made Man. The stories in this collection blur the boundaries of time and force characters to make uncomfortable choices. These choices not only influence life and death but also let them be heard in a world that silences Central American voices.
It’s important to support debut authors so we can hopefully see more of their works in the future. The more voices and the more diverse they are, the better.
Click here for an article on nine incredible female Hispanic and Latina characters.
Check out our Hispanic/Latinx Recommendations shelf on Bookstr’s Bookshop page.
