Latina/o Literature

Deliberate Accidents of Discovery: The Trouble With Finding New Latina/o Writers

Deliberate Accidents of Discovery: The Trouble With Finding New Latina/o Writers

In an exercise of radical honesty I’ll share this with you: I almost always find great new Latina/o writing by accident. I think part of this is my pell-mell strategy of finding new books (at literary events, on coffee tables, etc.) though part of it can be attributed to my literary blind spots as well…

The Millennial-Gen X Rift Part II: the MFA System And A Digital Latina/o Literary Renaissance

The Millennial-Gen X Rift Part II: the MFA System And A Digital Latina/o Literary Renaissance

Hector Tobar wouldn’t be the first to speculate about a contemporary Latina/o literary renaissance. That hype has been around for a long, long while. It surrounded the work of Gen X Latina/o writers beginning to publish in the mid to late 90’s and early 2000’s of which Junot Diaz is the most notable. The same…

Proxy Narratives: Jennifer Clement’s “Widow Basquiat”

I’m always looking for a stellar book come November. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for the uninitiated) is about as appealing of an idea as having a month-long dental procedure and about as equally fun to be around. So, I mostly hide away. I do the opposite of what you’re supposed to do in November—I…

Literary Boroughs #55: Mexico City, Mexico

Literary Boroughs #55: Mexico City, Mexico

The Literary Boroughs series will explore little-known and well-known literary communities across the country and world and show that while literary culture can exist online without regard to geographic location, it also continues to thrive locally. Posts are by no means exhaustive. The series originally ran on our blog from May 2012 until April 2013. Please enjoy the 55th post on…

Is Chicana/o Literature Dead? (A: No, not really): A Teacher’s Ramblings

It used to be that I didn’t know what Chicana/o literature was. Sometimes I still think I don’t, which is embarrassing because I teach classes on Chicana/o lit. The dictionary definition is easy—it’s been studied, chronicled, crystalized–and I can easily think of my heroes: Helena Maria Viramontes, Dagoberto Gilb, Corky Gonzales, Sandra Cisneros, La Gloria…