LatinX Audio Lit Mag

Reyna Grande takes us behind the scenes and under the hood of her latest novel 'A Ballad of Love and Glory.' Tune in to find out what Irish immigrants and Latino immigrants to the US had in common. And if you didn't know that the US-Mexico border started just below Oregon as late as 1821, this is the episode for you. 

Reyne Grande is an award-winning author who released her latest novel, A Ballad of Love and Glory, in March. She's also written the memoirs The Distance Between Usand A Dream Called Home, the novels Across a Hundred Mountains (Atria, 2006) and Dancing with Butterflies (Washington Square Press, 2009). Reyna has received an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlán Literary Award, and the International Latino Book Award. In 2012, she was a finalist for the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Awards. In 2015 she was honored with a Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature and a Latino Spirit Award in 2021. The young reader’s version of The Distance Between Us received a 2017 Honor Book Award for the Américas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature and a 2016 Eureka! Honor Awards from the California Reading Association and an International Literacy Association Children’s Book Award 2017.

A Ballad of Love and Glory is historical fiction inspired by true events and real-life figures and also illuminates a little-known chapter of the Mexican-American War: An Irish soldier in the Saint Patrick’s Battalion, a regiment of foreign-born soldiers that deserted the U.S. Army to fight for Mexico, falls in love with a widowed nurse in the Mexican Army, and together they must fight for their love and survival. ( Available in Spanish in October and available in paperback in January 2023.)

Reyne Grande is an award-winning author who released her latest novel, A Ballad of Love and Glory, in March. She's also written the memoirs The Distance Between Us and A Dream Called Home, the novels Across a Hundred Mountains (Atria, 2006) and Dancing with Butterflies (Washington Square Press, 2009). Reyna has received an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlán Literary Award, and the International Latino Book Award. In 2012, she was a finalist for the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Awards. In 2015 she was honored with a Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature and a Latino Spirit Award in 2021. The young reader’s version of The Distance Between Us received a 2017 Honor Book Award for the Américas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature and a 2016 Eureka! Honor Awards from the California Reading Association and an International Literacy Association Children’s Book Award 2017.

If you've ever had an idea (or a story) that only you believed in, then this is the episode for you. Stop what you're doing and have a listen.

Margo Candela was born and raised in Los Angeles and began her writing career when she joined Glendale Community College’s student newspaper. She transferred to San Francisco State University as a journalism major, and upon graduation began writing for websites and magazines before writing her first two novels, Underneath It All and Life Over Easy. She returned to Los Angeles to raise her son and wrote More Than This and Good-bye to All That. The Neapolitan Sisters is her fifth novel and her first after a decade-long hiatus from writing. She now lives in San Francisco.

"When we were little, our dad would sit one of us on his lap as he drove to The Boys supermarket in Highland Park. He’d leave us in the car with the motor running while he ran in to pick up a six-pack or two and pork rinds for himself, and a bag of Ruffles chips, and a bottle of Mexican Coke for me and my sisters to share on the drive back to Boyle Heights."

Margo Candela's novel 'The Neapolitan Sisters' covers some serious topics, but at its core, it’s about the strong bonds of sisterhood. Told in alternating points of view, Candela's funny and entertaining novel is about the weeks leading up to the wedding of the youngest of three very different sisters who reunite at their East L.A. childhood home, and are faced with secrets from their past.

Margo Candela was born and raised in Los Angeles and began her writing career when she joined Glendale Community College’s student newspaper. She transferred to San Francisco State University as a journalism major, and upon graduation began writing for websites and magazines before writing her first two novels, Underneath It All and Life Over Easy. She returned to Los Angeles to raise her son and wrote More Than This and Good-bye to All That. The Neapolitan Sisters is her fifth novel and her first after a decade-long hiatus from writing. She now lives in San Francisco.

There is the age-old question of whether an artist's personal life should impact your perception of their work. In this episode Martha walks us through how she came to focus on Pablo Neruda.

Featured in Latinos Magazine among the Top Ten Most Successful Mexicans in Canada, and named also one of the Top Ten Most Influential Hispanic-Canadians, Martha Bátiz was born and raised in Mexico City, but has been living in Toronto since 2003. Her articles, chronicles, reviews and short stories have appeared in diverse newspapers and magazines not only in her homeland, but also in Spain, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Peru, Ireland, England, the United States and Canada.

Martha has penned two short-story collections in Spanish: A todos los voy a matar (I’m Going To Kill Them All, Castillo Press, Mexico, 2000), and De tránsito (In Transit, Terranova Editores, Puerto Rico, 2014). Her award-winning novella Boca de lobo was originally published in Spanish both in the Dominican Republic and in Mexico (in 2007 and 2008, respectively), and released in its first English translation as The Wolf’s Mouth (Exile Editions, 2009). In 2018 it appeared in its French version as La Gueule du Loup (Lugar Común Editorial), and in a new English edition under the title Damiana’s Reprieve (Exile Editions). Boca de lobo is also available through Audible as an Audiobook in Spanish since 2021.

Editor of the anthology Desde el norte: Narrativa canadiense contemporánea (UAM, 2015), Martha is also part of the editorial committee of the successful books Historias de Toronto and Historias de Montreal (Lugar Común, 2016 and 2019, respectively). She holds a PhD in Latin American Literature and is an ATA-certified literary translator. Besides being the founder and instructor of the Creative Writing in Spanish course currently offered by the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto, she is a part-time professor at three universities in the GTA where she teaches Spanish language and literature as well as translation.

Martha is also the author of two short-story collections in English, the first one titled Plaza Requiem: Stories at the Edge of Ordinary Lives (Exile Editions, 2017), winner of the 2018 International Latino Book Award in the category of “Best Popular Fiction: English.” The second and most recent is No Stars in the Sky, published by House of Anansi Press in May 2022.

What kind of person refers to their disabled infant daughter as a semi-colon? Listen to this episode and find out.

This story is part of the story collection 'No Stars in the Sky,' which came out in May, and is published by House of Anansi Press.

Featured in Latinos Magazine among the Top Ten Most Successful Mexicans in Canada, and named also one of the Top Ten Most Influential Hispanic-Canadians, Martha Bátiz was born and raised in Mexico City, but has been living in Toronto since 2003. Her articles, chronicles, reviews and short stories have appeared in diverse newspapers and magazines not only in her homeland, but also in Spain, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Peru, Ireland, England, the United States and Canada.

Martha has penned two short-story collections in Spanish: A todos los voy a matar (I’m Going To Kill Them All, Castillo Press, Mexico, 2000), and De tránsito (In Transit, Terranova Editores, Puerto Rico, 2014). Her award-winning novella Boca de lobo was originally published in Spanish both in the Dominican Republic and in Mexico (in 2007 and 2008, respectively), and released in its first English translation as The Wolf’s Mouth (Exile Editions, 2009). In 2018 it appeared in its French version as La Gueule du Loup (Lugar Común Editorial), and in a new English edition under the title Damiana’s Reprieve (Exile Editions). Boca de lobo is also available through Audible as an Audiobook in Spanish since 2021.

Editor of the anthology Desde el norte: Narrativa canadiense contemporánea (UAM, 2015), Martha is also part of the editorial committee of the successful books Historias de Toronto and Historias de Montreal (Lugar Común, 2016 and 2019, respectively). She holds a PhD in Latin American Literature and is an ATA-certified literary translator. Besides being the founder and instructor of the Creative Writing in Spanish course currently offered by the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto, she is a part-time professor at three universities in the GTA where she teaches Spanish language and literature as well as translation.

Martha is also the author of two short-story collections in English, the first one titled Plaza Requiem: Stories at the Edge of Ordinary Lives (Exile Editions, 2017), winner of the 2018 International Latino Book Award in the category of “Best Popular Fiction: English.” The second and most recent is No Stars in the Sky, published by House of Anansi Press in May 2022.

Are donuts the most perfect food on earth? Is it weird to thank them for their service to the human race? Get the answers to these questions and more on this behind-the-scenes episode. We do manage to talk about Lin's awesome poem. Eventually.

Lin Flores (she/they) lives and works in SLC, UT as a full-time poet and creative writing student. They are enrolled in the online Creative Writing Masters Program at the University of New Orleans. Lin published her first chapbook, Reflections While Living in Utah, in 2020. This work quickly became a local best seller, making it the most sold book at Utah’s first LBGTQ bookstore—Under The Umbrella. When Flores isn’t coaching high school poetry slam, she is volunteering her time at Encircle, an LGBTQ resource center in SLC. Flores loves art, music, history, donuts, and God. You can follow her at lincpoetry.com and on Insta at @lincpoetry. 

"A dad and a dog, delirious as tío.

Unreliable like a rainstorm, he’d go years without a call."

Check out this moving piece from Lin Flores, a poem about family, inconsistent parenting, and the aftermath it leaves behind.

Lin Flores (she/they) lives and works in SLC, UT as a full-time poet and creative writing student. They are enrolled in the online Creative Writing Masters Program at the University of New Orleans. Lin published her first chapbook, Reflections While Living in Utah, in 2020. This work quickly became a local best seller, making it the most sold book at Utah’s first LBGTQ bookstore—Under The Umbrella. When Flores isn’t coaching high school poetry slam, she is volunteering her time at Encircle, an LGBTQ resource center in SLC. Flores loves art, music, history, donuts, and God. 

You can follow Lin at Lincpoetry.com and on Insta at @LincPoetry.

Sometimes a story isn't hopeful because everything turned out right. Sometimes it's hopeful because the person stood up for themselves and demanded what they deserved. Mary Jo walks us through 'Insignificant,' explaining the subtler aspects of this quietly provocative story.

Mary Jo Garrido is a Dominican-Canadian fiction author who lives in Toronto, Canada. Her stories have appeared in English in Raconteur literary magazine and Dreamers Creative Writing. In Spanish, her work appears in “Nostalgia bajo cero,” an anthology awarded Best Multi-author Fiction Book 2021 by the International Latino Book Award and in “La casa en el race,” a collection of short stories by seven Latin American writers, published in June 2022 by Editorial Lugar Común. Currently, she's working on a collection of interrelated short stories as her final project for the Creative Writing certificate at the University of Toronto. You can follow Mary Jo at @maryjogarrido.

In this dreamy story, Mary Jo takes us to a cafe in sun-drenched Santo Domingo, and a transcendent moment with an unfaithful ex. 

Mary Jo Garrido is a Dominican-Canadian fiction author who lives in Toronto, Canada. Her stories have appeared in English in Raconteur literary magazine and Dreamers Creative Writing. In Spanish, her work appears in “Nostalgia bajo cero,” an anthology awarded Best Multi-author Fiction Book 2021 by the International Latino Book Award and in “La casa en el race,” a collection of short stories by seven Latin American writers, published in June 2022 by Editorial Lugar Común. Currently, she's working on a collection of interrelated short stories as her final project for the Creative Writing certificate at the University of Toronto. You can follow Mary Jo at @maryjogarrido.