The son of immigrant parents, writer Juan Velez was the first child in his family to graduate college. In this episode, he talks about the hard work, focus, and family support it took for him to write as he worked other jobs and faced challenges like depression, anxiety, and loss.

Listen as Juan discusses the therapeutic aspects of both his writing and his relationship with his community. In his newly released debut novel, The Argom's Influence, he honors the community bonds that sustain him by introducing historically marginalized people into the world of fantasy fiction, a genre traditionally dominated by characters of white European descent.