F240.
Unforgettable Latinx Characters
Friday, March 25, 2022
3:20 pm to 4:20 pm
Five debut novelists will discuss their work and the path to publishing strong Latinx characters that leap off the page. What are the keys to crafting unforgettable characters that will haunt readers? How did they approach creating complex characters that honor communities—Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, Southern, and Midwestern—underrepresented in the US literary landscape? This panel aims to amplify different Latinx voices while celebrating the novelist's pursuit of telling stories that persevere.
Participants
Cleyvis Natera is the author of the forthcoming novel Neruda on the Park.
Elizabeth Gonzalez James's writing has appeared in the Idaho Review, PANK, the Rumpus, the Ploughshares Blog, and elsewhere. Her first novel, Mona at Sea, was a finalist in the 2019 SFWP Literary Awards judged by Carmen Maria Machado.
Katie Gutierrez's writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Harper's Bazaar, Texas Monthly, and more. Her debut novel, More Than You'll Ever Know, is forthcoming in 2022.
Christine Kandic Torres is the author of the forthcoming novel, The Girls in Queens, which will be published by HarperVia in June 2022. Her Pushcart Prize-nominated short fiction has appeared in publications such as Kweli, Catapult, and Lunch Ticket.
Xochitl Gonzalez has an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow and recipient of the Michener-Copernicus Prize in Fiction. She was the winner of the 2019 Disquiet Literary Prize.
