2023 Latine National Book Award Finalists

FICTION FINALIST
Blackouts by Justin Torres
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

A book about storytelling—its legacies, dangers, delights, and potential for change—and a bold exploration of form, art, and love, Justin Torres's Blackouts uses fiction to see through the inventions of history and narrative. A marvel of creative imagination, it draws on testimony, photographs, illustrations, and a range of influences as it insists that we look long and steadily at what we have inherited and what we have made—a world full of ghostly shadows and flashing moments of truth. A reclamation of ransacked history, a celebration of defiance, and a transformative encounter, Blackouts mines the stories that have been kept from us and brings them into the light.

NONFICTION FINALIST
Liliana's Invincible Summer: A Sister's Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza
Hogarth / Penguin Random House

September 2019. Cristina Rivera Garza travels from her home in Texas to Mexico City, in search of an old, unresolved criminal file. "My name is Cristina Rivera Garza," she wrote in her request to the attorney general, "and I am writing to you as a relative of Liliana Rivera Garza, who was murdered on July 16, 1990."

In luminous, poetic prose, Rivera Garza tells a singular yet universally resonant story: that of a spirited, wondrously hopeful young woman who tried to survive in a world of increasingly normalized gendered violence. Following her decision to recover her sister's file, Rivera Garza traces the history of Liliana's life, from her early romance with a handsome but possessive and short-tempered man, to that exhilarating final summer of 1990 when Liliana loved, thought, and traveled more widely and freely than she ever had before. Using her remarkable talents as an acclaimed scholar, novelist, and poet, Rivera Garza collected and curated evidence—handwritten letters, police reports, school notebooks, interviews with Liliana's loved ones—to render and understand a life beyond the crime itself. Through this remarkable and genre-defying memoir, Rivera Garza confronts the trauma of losing her sister and examines from multiple angles how this tragedy continues to shape who she is—and what she fights for—today.

TRANSLATED LITERATURE FINALIST
Abyss by Pilar Quintana, Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman
World Editions

Claudia is an impressionable eight-year-old girl, trying to understand the world through the eyes of the adults around her. But her hardworking father hardly speaks a word, while her unhappy mother spends her days reading celebrity lifestyle magazines, tending to her enormous collection of plants, and filling Claudia’s head with stories about women who end their lives in tragic ways. Then an interloper arrives, disturbing the delicate balance of family life, and Claudia’s world starts falling apart. In this strikingly vivid portrait of Cali, Colombia, Claudia’s acute observations remind us that children are capable of discerning extremely complex realities even if they cannot fully understand them. In Abyss, Quintana leads us brilliantly into the lonely heart of the child we have all once been, driven by fear of abandonment.

TRANSLATED LITERATURE FINALIST
The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel, Translated from the Portuguese by Bruna Dantas Lobato
New Vessel Press

A letter has beckoned to Raimundo since he received it over fifty years ago from his youthful passion, handsome Cícero. But having grown up in an impoverished area of Brazil where the demands of manual labor thwarted his becoming literate, Raimundo has long been unable to read. As young men, he and Cícero fell in love, only to have Raimundo’s father brutally beat his son when he discovered their affair. Even after Raimundo succeeds in making a life for himself in the big city, he continues to be haunted by this secret missive full of longing from the distant past. Now at age seventy-one, he at last acquires a true education and the ability to access the letter. Exploring Brazil’s little-known hinterland as well its urban haunts, this is a sweeping novel of repression, violence, and shame, along with their flip side: survival, endurance, and the ultimate triumph of an unforgettable figure on society’s margins. The Words That Remain explores the universal power of the written word and language, and how they affect all our relationships. 

#SalaSundays with Lauren Cepero

Lauren Cepero hosted our Instagram, on September 10, 2023 for our weekly #SalaSundays series. Below are a few questions that we asked Lauren.

Latinx In Publishing (LxP): What do you do?

Lauren Cepero (LC): I am a Publicity Manager for Kids & YA titles at Page Street.

LxP: How did you get started?

(LC): From middle school through my third year of undergrad, I had planned to become a journalist but when I looked around and saw how passionate everyone else in my final classes were, compared to my waning interest, I knew that journalism wasn’t going to be the path for me. At the time, I was working at the university library and ended up talking to a librarian about my future options. They suggested publishing! Despite being a voracious reader, I had never thought about how books were made. I tried for internships but didn’t have much luck, so I applied for the Publishing & Writing graduate program at Emerson College. From there, I did many internships and eventually went on to work for HMH Books for Young Readers and Page Street.

LxP: What do you wish you knew before getting into the industry?

(LC): This is a hard question because so much of the job is learned on the job, even with previous schooling / internships! Over the years, via various sources, I have heard the advice that to work in a marketing department you need to be an extrovert. Many things are probably easier if you are naturally a charismatic extrovert, but you can tend toward shyness (as I do) and still work in marketing. The reality is that you will likely have to publicly speak in some capacity in many of the departments within publishing (to the sales team / when pitching a book for acquisition / to your own team or full department) and it’s a skill you absolutely can learn! So don’t let that stop you from considering a position in marketing or publicity.

LxP: What book are you currently working on or reading?

(LC): I just finished reading What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez, which was swoony and fun – recommend if you enjoyed The Royal Diaries: Cleopatra VII, Daughter of the Nile as a kid. Now I am trying to decide between Starling House by Alix E. Harrow and Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison (which I’ve never read!). Very different vibes, lol, but both fit with the early Fall / back-to-school- season and I’ll likely go back and forth with both this month. 

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Lauren Cepero is a Publicity Manager for Kids & YA titles at Page Street. She has worked on campaigns for Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez, Damned If You Do by Alex Brown, The Gathering Dark anthology edited by Tori Bovalino, and more. Originally from Orlando, Florida, she earned her MA in Publishing & Writing from Emerson College  and currently resides in the Boston-area.  

Author Q & A: Vlad, the Fabulous Vampire by Flavia Z. Drago

Deep in the Dark Woods lives a vampire named Vlad. He loves fashion, but wears only black outfits like his friends. Black is an all-time classic in their world.

But Vlad has a big secret beneath his cape: He has pink cheeks—so bright that they make him look horribly alive. The stout vampire worries his friends would stop liking him if they found out. So he devises a plan. Vlad turns his fashion obsession to good use by designing clothes that can hide his rosiness.

Soon after, Vlad discovers that his friend, Shelley, also has a secret of her own. Could they figure out how to be comfortable in their own skin, together?

Vlad, the Fabulous Vampire is a charming and uplifting book about the journey to self-acceptance by acclaimed author-illustrator Flavia Z. Drago. Out now from Candlewick Press, the picture book is the latest installment in Drago’s World of Gustavo series—a delightfully monstrous world that began with her 2020 New York Times #1 bestseller, Gustavo, the Shy Ghost. The book’s Spanish version—Vlad, el vampirito fabuloso—was released simultaneously.

Drago, who was born in Mexico City and now lives in the UK, spoke with me on behalf of Latinx in Publishing about the creation of Vlad the vampire, what keeps her drawn to this world of monsters, and more.

“Monsters are misfits. Monsters are just reflections of ourselves, in a way. But in making monsters fearful, we have kind of detached ourselves from the things that we fear about ourselves as well, so to speak. So I just think it’s good to look back at them. ”

— Flavia Z. Drago

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Amaris Castillo (AC): Congratulations on Vlad, the Fabulous Vampire! What inspired this story?

Flavia Z. Drago (FZD): That’s a good question. I did Gustavo, the Shy Ghost, which is a book about a ghost. After I finished that book, I started working on Leila, the Perfect Witch, a book about a witch. I had this little vampire character who appeared as I was doing sketches for another book actually, called Monsters Play… Peekaboo! It’s monsters playing hide and seek, and I basically drew sheets with different shapes and you need to guess which monster is hiding underneath each sheet. The sketches for the book had different monsters, and one of them was a vampire.

As I was working on Leila, I was allowing myself to do a bit of play with the pencil on the sketchbook. And I drew the vampire wearing pink clothes. I thought it could be fun to have a gothic-looking character wearing something that would feel very opposite to what a gothic world is. I didn’t do anything with him. I just knew I liked him and I showed it to my publishers, and they also liked him. We knew we wanted to make a book, so as I was working on Leila, I had the idea that the next book was going to be about a vampire. But then I didn’t know what his problem was going to be. I knew that he was a vampire who liked wearing pink, but I didn’t know what his story was.

It was actually my partner who suggested, “Well, maybe he has rosy cheeks and that’s his problem. And he wants to hide his cheeks [by] wearing clothes.” So he’s a vampire who likes pink. He feels very self-conscious about having rosy cheeks that make him look very much alive, which is not what a vampire is supposed to look like. I thought it could be fun to play with that and make it a book about learning how to love yourself—which is an everyday task, and which we all struggle with in very different ways.

AC: Your main character, Vlad, has a passion for fashion, but dresses only in black like all of his vampire friends. He’s been keeping a secret—that he has rosy cheeks. He feels a need to hide this from others. How did you decide on this particular struggle for your vampire protagonist?

FZD: I thought it was fitting. It was a black-and-white world, and Vlad is going to be very happy to live in that world. He’s very creative and he loves fashion. There’s nothing he loves more than fashion. But because he has this problem with his rosy pink cheeks, he feels like he can’t wear fun clothes because he has to cover his cheeks with the same boring black outfit all over again. So he can’t be himself. He can’t be who he really wants to be.

And so one day, he has this idea: Maybe I can actually use fashion to cover my cheeks. But that’s a bit futile because, in the end, that’s not who he really is. He is a vampire who has pink rosy cheeks, and he needs to learn how to love it. The thing I didn’t know was that he was going to have this friend who ends up being a key character in this story.

AC: I love his friend because she had a secret as well. I don’t want to give out a spoiler, but that was really cute.

FZD: I think it’s something that happens to all of us. We feel ashamed of something about ourselves, and the only way of getting through it is [by] recognizing it and maybe sharing it with others. So that’s what the characters in my book need to do. They just don’t know how to, and then they find out.

AC: This story is set in the same world as your best-selling picture book, Gustavo, the Shy Ghost. And by now, you’ve had several books on monsters and witches. You bring your signature flair to the other characters—bats, witches, ghosts. What about this world keeps drawing you back in?

FZD: It all just started with Gustavo. When I made Gustavo, I wasn’t aware that I was going to end up developing a whole world of monsters. After I finished Gustavo, I baked a unicorn cake with my family and I posted the pictures on Instagram. When I was having a chat with my agent, Claire Cartey, she was like, “Why don’t you make a book about baking?” I was like, “No, that’s just boring.” And then I was like: Hang on a minute. I have a witch. Witches bake gingerbread houses. And that’s just a really fun and good excuse to draw witches [Laughs]. I’ve always loved horror films and folk tales, so I thought it could be a really fun opportunity to draw some of the things that I enjoy the most.

As I was working on Leila, the Perfect Witch, I ended up thinking about Vlad. And at the same time, I started doing this PhD and researching horror as a genre in the children’s picture book format or medium. I guess it just coincided. I started making books about monsters and then I decided to become a researcher. That just prompted me to think more deeply about monsters and how I could use them in my picture books—and that’s what I’ve started to do.

AC: There’s a big lesson here in being yourself, and how sometimes you need a friend to help you get there. How did you work to bring that onto the page?

FZD: That was really, really hard, because I didn’t want it to be preachy. So I wrote and rewrote the words many times. I wanted to keep it as open as possible because I didn’t want to say, ‘This is how you should feel about yourself.’ I wanted to keep it open, so that whoever is reading it could identify with what Vlad is going through. So I had to think very carefully about the words on the page.

My publishers and I went back and forth, and back and forth. We had many, many proofs. I think there’s at least maybe 13, 15 different proofs with different writing. Up until the last minute I was still thinking of changing the ending. But it just ended up being what it is now.

AC: What are you hoping readers take away from Vlad the Fabulous Vampire?

FZD: I want them to enjoy the world that I’ve created and enjoy all of the details. I want them to feel the love for monsters that I feel. Monsters are misfits. Monsters are just reflections of ourselves, in a way. But in making monsters fearful, we have kind of detached ourselves from the things that we fear about ourselves as well, so to speak. So I just think it’s good to look back at them. 

On the other hand, I would like for people to see the book. Hopefully they’ll identify with Vlad in one way or another—whether it’s because they feel self-conscious about their physical appearance, about their identity, about their nationality—about anything. This is why I think vampires and monsters also work, because they don’t point out to a single thing you’re afraid of. You can be anything. So it’s very versatile in that sense.

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Flavia Z. Drago was born and raised in Mexico City. As a child, she wanted to be a mermaid. When that didn’t happen, she began her career as a graphic designer and a children’s book illustrator. Her debut, Gustavo, the Shy Ghost, was a smashing success and #1 New York Times bestseller. She is also the author-illustrator of Leila, the Perfect Witch and two monster-themed board books, Monsters Play… Counting! and Monsters Play… Peekaboo! She loves colors, textures, and shapes and enjoys creating them with different materials and a bit of digital sorcery. Flavia Z. Drago divides her time between the UK and Mexico.

Amaris Castillo is an award-winning journalist, writer, and the creator of Bodega Stories, a series featuring real stories from the corner store. Her writing has appeared in La Galería Magazine, Aster(ix) Journal, Spanglish Voces, PALABRITAS, Dominican Moms Be Like… (part of the Dominican Writers Association’s #DWACuenticos chapbook series), and most recently Quislaona: A Dominican Fantasy Anthology and Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice. Her short story, “El Don,” was a prize finalist for the 2022 Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival. She is a proud member of Latinx in Publishing’s Writers Mentorship Class of 2023 and lives in Florida with her family and dog, Brooklyn.

Latine Authors Longlisted For The National Book Awards

Latinx In Publishing would like to congratulate the Latine authors longlisted for the
2023 National Book Awards!

POETRY

José Olivarez, Promises of Gold
Henry Holt and Company / Macmillan Publishers

José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants. His debut book of poems, Citizen Illegal, was a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Award and a winner of the Chicago Review of Books Award for poetry. It was named a top book of 2018 by the Adroit Journal, NPR, and the New York Public Library. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he co-edited the poetry anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext. He co-hosts the poetry podcast The Poetry Gods.

NONFICTION

Cristina Rivera Garza, Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice
Hogarth / Penguin Random House    

Cristina Rivera Garza is the award-winning author of The Taiga Syndrome and The Iliac Crest, among many other books. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, Rivera Garza is the M.D. Anderson Distinguished Professor in Hispanic Studies, and director of the PhD program in creative writing in Spanish at the University of Houston.

FICTION

Justin Torres, Blackouts
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers

Justin Torres is the author of We the Animals, which won the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, was translated into 15 languages, and was adapted into a feature film. He was named a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University, and a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library. His short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, Tin House, and The Washington Post. He lives in Los Angeles, and teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.

TRANSLATED LITERATURE

Stênio Gardel, The Words That Remain
Translator, Bruna Dantas Lobato
New Vessel Press

Stênio Gardel was born in 1980 in the rural northeast of Brazil. The Words That Remain is his first novel.

Juan Cárdenas, The Devil of the Provinces
Translator, Davis
Coffee House Press

Juan Cárdenas is a Colombian art critic, curator, translator, and author of seven works of fiction, including his novel Los estratos, which received the Otras Voces Otros Ámbitos Prize. He has translated the works of such writers as William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Gordon Lish, David Ohle, J.M. Machado de Assis, and Eça de Queirós. Cárdenas currently coordinates the masters program in creative writing at the Instituto Caro y Cuervo in Bogotá, where he works as a professor and researcher.

Pilar Quintana, Abyss Translator, Lisa Dillman
World Editions

Pilar Quintana is a Colombian author. In 2007, Hay Festival selected her as one of the most promising young authors of Latin America. Her previous novel, The Bitch, won an English PEN Translates award and was a Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Translated Literature. It also won the Colombian Biblioteca de Narrativa Prize, and was chosen as one of the most valuable objects to preserve for future generations in a marble time capsule in Bogotá. Abyss, her latest novel, was awarded the Alfaguara de Novela Prize.

Fernanda Melchor, This Is Not Miami Translator, Sophie Hughes
New Directions Publishing Corporation

Born in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1982, Fernanda Melchor’s novel Hurricane Season was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, Longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature, and was a New York Times Notable Book.

#SalaSundays with Carla Benton

Carla Benton hosted our Instagram, on August 20, 2023 for our weekly #SalaSundays series. Below are a few questions that we asked Carla.

Latinx In Publishing (LxP): What do you do?

Carla Benton (CB): I am a full-time freelance copy editor and proofreader. Previously, I worked in-house in production editorial roles at Penguin, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.

LxP: How did you get started?

(CB): I attended college in New York City; during this time I held publishing internships, and I continued to follow that career path once I graduated.

LxP: What do you wish you knew before getting into the industry?

(CB): I graduated in 2009, when the recession was still in full swing and jobs were scarce, so I was very preoccupied with making sure I majored in something that would likely land me a job, even though I wasn't entirely sure what type of job I wanted. I wish I'd known just about any writing-focused concentration in the humanities would have prepared me to take the same career path so I would have felt more inclined to choose a course of study purely because it interested me.

LxP: What book are you currently working on or reading?

(CB): I just wrapped up proofreading a compelling memoir called My Side of the River by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez. A recent read I enjoyed was R. F. Kuang's latest novel, Yellowface, and on the nonfiction side I just started reading sports journalist Jemele Hill's memoir, Uphill.

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I am full-time freelance copy editor and proofreader and have been based in Chicago for seven years now. I mostly work on adult books and the Big Five publishers continue to be my primary clients. In my spare time, I am an avid long-distance runner, and I enjoy traveling. I recently returned from an outdoor retreat in Alaska that was organized by one of the authors I worked with last year!

Book Review: Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina, illustrated by Mel Valentine Vargas

If you’re reading this review, you probably know just how petrifying high school can be. Not fitting in, not feeling good enough, getting good grades, romance, friendships, body image. High school is a lot, on top of the struggles with family and identity that are often prevalent as you make the transition into a young adult. Add social media and cyber-bullying into the mix and high school? Yeah, it’s hell.

Meg Medina’s award-winning novel, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, is expertly transformed by Mel Valentine Vargas into a graphic novel that is pertinent to teens of today. It takes elements that were strongest in Medina’s 2013 prose and brings them to life in a revitalizing way. We still feel the yearning, loneliness, and vulnerability that Medina crafted for us through Piddy Sanchez’s story, but Vargas expertly gets us to know Piddy through their contemporary art.

“Meg Medina’s award-winning novel, “Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass”, is expertly transformed by Mel Valentine Vargas into a graphic novel that is pertinent to teens of today. It takes elements that were strongest in Medina’s 2013 prose and brings them to life in a revitalizing way. ”

Piddy Sanchez feels herself slipping, and she feels alone.

Her mom Clara works late, and is doing the best she can to raise Piddy as a single mom. And despite her mom doing everything she can for Piddy, Piddy still feels like a piece of her is missing. Her father is no longer in the picture, choosing instead to live with a second family in the Dominican Republic. Her best friend Mitzi is actually fitting in at her school, and forgetting about Piddy. Her grades are falling, she's skipping class, she’s had to move, and oh yeah, Yaqui Delgado wants to kick her ass.

Though the title is centered around Yaqui, we actually get to know her very little, except that she hates Piddy for being the new girl at school. She can’t stand the way that Piddy shakes her hips when she walks. Piddy isn’t the stereotypical Latina, but she’s just as Latina as the rest of the girls at school. Still, she knows she doesn’t fit in because of her accentless Spanish, her light skin, and her adeptness in the classroom. And Yaqui blames Piddy for talking to Alfredo, a boy that Yaqui has her eyes on.

So, after weeks of bullying, Yaqui finally kicks Piddy’s ass. And posts the fight online for the whole school to see.

We know today just as we did back in 2013 (when Meg Medina’s prose novel was first published) about the intensity of cyberbullying. The fact is, social media has become even more of a staple in young teens’ lives than it was ten years ago. It is proof that young readers, young Latine readers, need Piddy’s story now more than ever.

Yes, Piddy Sanchez is going through it. Kids her age can suck, and the pressure to succeed and fit in threatens to make her head explode. But, the most important thing that Piddy learns through all of this is that she is never alone. She learned how to play piano from her mom, how to dance and shake her hips from Lila, and how to make new friends and try new things from her best friend Mitzi. She has friends and family who love her and will stick up for her no matter what she is going through. With a strong community around her, Piddy learns to stick up for herself and gathers the strength to not give up, even when it feels like the entire world is against her.

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Meg Medina is the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. She is the author of the Newbery Medal–winning book Merci Suárez Changes Gears, which was also a 2018 Kirkus Prize finalist, and which was followed by two more acclaimed books about the Suárez family: Merci Suárez Can’t Dance and Merci Suárez Plays It Cool. Her young adult novels include Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, which won the 2014 Pura Belpré Author Award, and which will be published in 2023 as a graphic novel illustrated by Mel Valentine Vargas; Burn Baby Burn, which was long-listed for the National Book Award; and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind. She is also the author of picture books Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez, Jumpstart’s 2020 Read for the Record selection; Mango, Abuela, and Me, illustrated by Angela Dominguez, which was a Pura Belpré Author Award Honor Book; and Tía Isa Wants a Car, illustrated by Claudio Muñoz, which won the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award; and the biography for young readers She Persisted: Sonia Sotomayor. The daughter of Cuban immigrants, she grew up in Queens, New York, and now lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Mel Valentine Vargas is a Queer Cuban-American graphic novelist based in Chicago. They hope to draw the kind of illustrations that their younger self, and others like them, could have seen to feel less alone. Mel Valentine Vargas loves singing in Spanish, playing farming video games, and eating lots of gyoza with their friends.

Illianna Gonzalez-Soto lives in San Diego, CA with her dog Fluffers and her ever-growing #tbr pile. She currently works with ReedPop as a Marketing Coordinator. Follow her on Twitter & Instagram @iliannagsoto.

Review and Author/Illustrator Q & A: Cool Green: Amazing, Remarkable Trees by Lulu Delacre

Cool Green: Amazing, Remarkable Trees begins with a question.

“¿Por qué, abuelo? Why?”

A young girl asks her grandfather why he’s in awe of trees. He’s a landscaper who believes trees are astounding. He begins to share why.

There’s the General Sherman, considered the “world’s biggest clean air machine,” and the monkey puzzle—“a living fossil and cousin of trees from long ago.” And there’s the coconut palm, which author-illustrator Lulu Delacre wanted to include because it was a big part of her upbringing in Puerto Rico.

Out now by Candlewick Press, Cool Green: Amazing, Remarkable Trees is a tender and lyrical ode to the trees of the world, with a strong backbone in research. With each page, the Latino landscaper guides readers through the wonders of a select group of trees. We learn about the umbrella thorn acacia, which “dresses its branches with needles and hooks,” and we take in the baobab—“an upside-down tree with a trunk like a sponge.”

Delacre’s illustrations, like the trees she features, brim with life. For this particular book, she opted for a mixed media—embedding live specimens like seeds, fronds, and leaves, into the art. Once she was done with the pages, the publisher photographed it in such a way that readers can see shadows on the page from the specimens. The art as a whole will likely nurture greater curiosity about the world’s trees.

By the end of the book, readers are left with more knowledge about trees and the uniqueness each brings. It’s also humbling to learn that more than seventy-three thousand species of trees inhabit Earth. Cool Green: Amazing, Remarkable Trees only scratches the surface, but it’s a quality introduction for both readers of all ages.

The root of this book is a love for nature and learning. Delacre, a big nature lover herself, dedicated it to the young stewards of the Earth.

On behalf of Latinx In Publishing, I spoke with Delacre recently about the inspiration behind Cool Green, her research and illustration processes, and more.

“By the end of the book, readers are left with more knowledge about trees and the uniqueness each brings. It’s also humbling to learn that more than seventy-three thousand species of trees inhabit Earth. ”

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Amaris Castillo (AC): Congratulations on the publication of Cool Green: Amazing, Remarkable Trees. What inspired you to write and illustrate this story?

Lulu Delacre (LD): It goes back to 2019, when I first saw an exhibit on trees, and specifically on the symbiotic nature between fungi and trees. That, paired with the fact that I’ve loved trees all my life. It’s a place of peace for me—walking in the woods and working in the garden.

So all the love of nature, paired with that exhibit and a love of learning—because I absolutely adore to learn—gave way to what happened next. I saw this exhibit in 2019, and then in 2020 we were on lockdown. My safe place again became walking the woods of national parks, gardening, and research. I also noticed how essential workers were thanked and how, all of a sudden, they became visible. I noticed that some people who worked in essential jobs know much more than what you think they do. That’s what made me appear the Latino landscaper who knows a lot more than what you would expect somebody that comes in and does work in your lawn might know. I wanted to share with children my awe of trees, through the voice of this landscaper.

AC: In your book, this Latino landscaper teaches his granddaughter about the different kinds of trees all over the world. Can you talk about your decision to make him a landscaper? Why was that important?

LD: For me it was important that the grandfather is a landscaper, because I have always admired the work of Latinos that come (here). . . When I had this home that I needed to take care of, I did have the help of someone who worked for me. He did the basic lawn care for many years. Talking to him, I realized that he knew so much more than what was apparent. I wanted to showcase that to children, because sometimes a reader might dismiss these essential workers. They might dismiss these people, and I feel that, that is an incorrect way of seeing life, because all of us have something to contribute to society.

A landscaper may not have the degree that a professor may have, but at the same time his knowledge is in the knowledge of the land, in the knowledge of plants, in the knowledge that perhaps came in ways that are not taught in the classroom—that are taught by nature itself. And that is valid knowledge, too.

AC: Your text in Cool Green is both poetic and informative. What was it like to balance both in order to tell a compelling ode to trees?

LD: That’s a great question. First and foremost is research, which I adore. And I did tons of it. Because I wanted the young reader to fall in love with these trees, I searched for what I call the “cool facts.” I literally made a list. If I were looking at these as a young reader, what facts would I find really interesting? What is it that I find cool about this tree? And that’s what I wrote.

After I had all my facts, then I went back and tried to weave these facts in a way that was lyrical. For me, it’s a succinct way of saying a very important thing in very few words that perhaps has more of a chance to stay in the young brain because it’s short. Perhaps it has a way of telling him, or her, or they, just enough that they feel compelled to turn the pages and find more about this specific tree.

AC: In your notes at the end of the book, you write that there are more than seventy-three thousand species of trees that inhabit the Earth. How did you decide which ones you wanted to feature in Cool Green, like the monkey puzzle or the coconut palm?

LD: I’m sorry, but I found out about the coconut palm as soon as I could because I wanted to somehow feature it. It was so much part of my upbringing, and knowing that it was the second largest seed, I said ‘OK, this is the fact. I’m not going to go with the largest seed. It’s going to be the second one, because I want to feature the coconut palm.’ Besides, it has a lot of uses.

For some young children, it’s about the champion tree—the tallest tree, or the tree with the largest girth, like the Ahuehuete from Mexico. This is a champion tree that takes literally 17 adults holding hands to go around its girth. So I wanted to have the champion trees, as well as some amazing trees that I didn’t know about until I started doing the research. Like the Eucalyptus deglupta—the rainbow gum—which literally seems that it couldn’t exist. I do sessions about this book to kids and, when I show them the illustration of the rainbow gum, I ask them, “Do you think that this tree is real, or do you think I made up those colors?” Of course, many of them think that it’s all made up. So I show them photos, and the kids are amazed.

My vision was not only to showcase trees that kids could relate to, but also to do it in a global fashion. I wanted to show readers that you have these amazing trees all around the globe. You have to be in awe. You may have one that is right in your backyard, and you don’t know that it’s there.

AC: I understand that, as part of creating the illustrations, you searched for live specimens of trees. Can you share more about your process?

LD: It’s a mixed media. You can go to my site and see some of the pictures of the process. I used soft acrylics for flat colors. I decided to blend graphic shapes with accurate height and girth of specimens. I represented the surrounding animal life to hint of tree size scale. In an echo of scientific observation I collected on my own, or sought from arboretums, leaves, twigs, cones, bark, and flowers of each species. I used some of the collected specimens to create textured hand printed papers. Finally, I selected a few chosen specimens to adhere to the art. It’s my own way of modeling for readers to do the same with trees they particularly like.

Then after everything was done, the publisher did a very good job of photographing it in such a way that you can see those shadows. So when I show the book to young people, I ask them, “Where is the specimen—the dry leaf that I collaged?” They can pinpoint it. That part was very well done by the publisher. It’s a whole process. Art for a book like this takes me about six months.

AC: What are you hoping young readers take away from Cool Green?

LD: My hope is that, by reading one of these poems, they feel compelled to know more about the specific tree that spoke to them. That it instills in them a little bit of awe for trees, and for what they do for us, humans and the Earth. Maybe they can also become collectors of specific leaves of their favorite trees. They might also be compelled to write their own poem based on facts about the tree that they particularly love.

Doing these books, for me, is like sowing seeds. You don’t know what is going to speak to a child and young minds are really where you want to sow these seeds. If you want to create stewards of the Earth, you must start with the youngest of children. Sometimes it’s just by picking up a book like Cool Green or Verde Fresco, reading a couple of pages and just telling your kid, “You know what? Let’s go out to the park nearby. Let’s go check the trees out there. Let’s see if we can find those leaves, and then let’s see if we can find oak leaves. And what kind of oak leaves do you see?” It’s a bridge to asking questions. And kids are just so curious. It’s really when they are young that you can, like I say, sow seeds that later on grow into amazing people.

AC: You have a new book titled Veo Veo, I See You. What can you share about this story?

LD: I am very excited about Veo Veo, I See You. It celebrates essential workers, but it does it for the youngest of children—to the point that the children that might be playing the veo veo game may not remember what the world went through in 2020. It’s a very joyful book. It’s told in the voice of Marisol, a young girl who discovers the true meaning of the word “essential” on an outing with her mother and her younger brother as they go on errands in the city. She’s playing veo veo and learns who is essential in her surrounding community.

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Three-time Pura Belpré Award honoree Lulu Delacre has been writing and illustrating children's books since 1980. The New York Times Bestselling artist was born and raised in Puerto Rico to Argentinean parents. Delacre says her Latino heritage and her life experiences inform her work. Her many titles include Arroz con Leche: Popular Songs and Rhymes from Latin America, a Horn Book Fanfare Book in print for over 30 years. Her bilingual picture book ¡Olinguito, de la A a la Z! Descubriendo el bosque nublado; Olinguito, from A to Z! Unveiling the Cloud Forest and her story collection Us, in Progress: Short Stories About Young Latinos have received multiple starred reviews and awards. Among her latest works are the art of Turning Pages by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Cool Green: Amazing, Remarkable Trees. Delacre has lectured internationally and served as a juror for the National Book Awards. She has exhibited at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, The Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators in New York, the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, and the Zimmerli Art Museum among other venues. Reading is Fundamental honored her with a Champion of Children’s Literacy Award. For more visit her at www.luludelacre.com.

Amaris Castillo is an award-winning journalist, writer, and the creator of Bodega Stories, a series featuring real stories from the corner store. Her writing has appeared in La Galería Magazine, Aster(ix) Journal, Spanglish Voces, PALABRITAS, Dominican Moms Be Like… (part of the Dominican Writers Association’s #DWACuenticos chapbook series), and most recently Quislaona: A Dominican Fantasy Anthology and Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice. Her short story, “El Don,” was a prize finalist for the 2022 Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival. She is a proud member of Latinx in Publishing’s Writers Mentorship Class of 2023 and lives in Florida with her family and dog, Brooklyn.

Most Anticipated September 2023 Releases

September brought us some exciting book releases! Between picture books, fun and heartfelt romances, or a memoir that redefines the American Dream, there is something for everyone. Scroll below for a list of my most anticipated reads for September.

¡1,2,3 Baila! Series by Delia Ruiz | Illustrated by Graziela Andrade | On Sale September 5

Ever since I caught a glimpse of this series at the LA Times Festival of Books, I’ve been so excited for the official release! The ¡1,2,3 Baila! Series is a trio of bilingual books that teach children primary concepts through Latin music and dance. Merengue introduces Latin instruments and the sounds they make, Salsa teaches to count to 10, and Cumbia explores common manners like consent. 

I might not be a child, but the series features adorable illustrations and is such a creative and refreshing way to teach these concepts, and also introduce diverse settings and characters to kids.

First Gen: A Memoir by Alejandra Campoverdi | On Sale September 12

Sometimes I’m drawn to memoirs because the story seems so different from my own, other times it's the similarities in someone else’s tale that lure me in. With First Gen, it's a bit of both—it’s the familiar themes that draw me in to read about a story so unlike my own. In the same lifetime, Alejandra Campoverdi has been a child on welfare, a White House aide, a Harvard graduate, a gang member's girlfriend, and a candidate for U.S. Congress. Sharing her experience as a first generation Latina navigating social mobility, Campoverdi lays out a personal and intimate story of her journey though a life of contradictions. Always the trailblazer, Camporverdi redefines the narrative of the American Dream and brings to light the struggles of what it means to be a “First and Only.”

As Long as You Love Me by Marianna Leal |On Sale September 12

Long-term school nemesis, Catalina Diaz Solis and Gabriel Cabrera, find themselves in the biggest competition yet: the battle for a full-time job offer. Cata is desperate for the job, hoping it will guarantee her visa renewal; meanwhile, Gabriel finds himself preoccupied elsewhere, desperate for a date to his brother’s wedding. The solution? Gabe offers to step aside from consideration of the full-time job if Cata will be his plus-one. As Catalina grows closer to Gabe, she discovers there is more to him than she ever imagined. When things become complicated, she must decide what she is willing to do to make her dreams come true. 

Academic rivals? Enemies to lovers? Fake dating? Marianna Leal has got it all in this fun and emotional romance.

A British Girl's Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak by Laura Taylor Namey | On Sale September 26

The beauty of a good YA book is that it can carry so much depth and maturity while still maintaining a fun and accessible read. Laura Taylor Namey’s newest novel seems to be on this exact path. 

After losing her mother, Flora finds herself struggling with her grief, unable to control the inner chaos. While her family expects her to apply to university and take on more responsibility at their tea-shop business, Flora decides to head to Miami without telling anyone. There she finds a safe space in her surroundings, the Cuban-American culture of the city, and Baz Marín, a Miami Cuban who shares her love for photography. When her best friend, Gordon also finds his way to Florida, Flora realizes she must confront the “hurricane” of emotions, unable to hide in a city full of them. 

#SalaSundays with Kiara Valdez

Kiara Valdez hosted our Instagram, on August 27, 2023 for our weekly #SalaSundays series. Below are a few questions that we asked Kiara.

Latinx In Publishing (LxP): What do you do?

Kiara Valdez (KV): I am an editor at First Second, Macmillan's graphic novel imprint.

LxP: How did you get started?

(KV): I got hired right after graduating college and have been working at First Second for more than seven years.

LxP: What do you wish you knew before getting into the industry?

(KV): That if you're an editor your desire to read books outside of work actually decreases, haha. Or maybe it's just me.

LxP: What book are you currently working on or reading?

(KV): I'm working on a few but one I'd like to highlight is Call Me Iggy. It's a YA coming of age story about Ignacio "Iggy" Garcia, an Ohio-born Colombian American teen who relies on the outdated dating advice and terrible spanish lessons from his abuelito's ghost while trying to find a place he belongs—both in high school and in the general political climate of America.

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Kiara Valdez is an Afro-Dominican writer and graphic novel editor from New York City (shout out to Washington Heights). She graduated from Williams College with a double major in English Literature and Japanese, and spends her free time reading, writing, and enjoying a long list of other hobbies she can't keep up with. She is currently an editor with First Second, where she has edited several award-winning and best-selling graphic novels.

Though she is proud of every book she’s worked on at First Second, she especially enjoyed working on the Check, Please! series, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Snapdragon, Himawari House, and Frizzy. For her own list she is only looking for graphic novels and is mostly focused on middle grade and young adult. She is open to all genres but is especially interested in magical realism, memoir, #ownvoices stories (especially those from Latinx and Black creators), and stories with LGBTQ+ characters and romance. She likes stories that feel contemporary, real, and are grounded in our world regardless of the genre it’s in, and is a sucker for well-done resolutions/happy endings.

Book Review: Chupacarter and the Haunted Piñata by George Lopez and Ryan Calejo, illustrated by Santy Gutierrez

Chupacarter and the Haunted Piñata by George Lopez and Ryan Calejo, illustrated by Santy Gutierrez is the second book in the ChupaCarter series. Chupacarter and the Haunted Piñata focuses around Carter, the chupacabra, and his unlikely friendship with Jorge.

The reader finds Jorge in the midst of a town mystery that is decades old and seems to have come to life claiming many of the towns businesses through fires. The fires come every six years, caused by what most in the town believe is a haunted piñata. The piñata is part of a curse that was put on the small town, decades ago, by a rich boy who could no longer stand the cruel treatment that he received from his classmates. They had humiliated him for the last time and Boca Falls will forever know the day that they spoiled his birthday party.

“Lopez, Calejo and Gutierrez weaved together a story full of small town folklores, fires, suspects, a talking chupacabra, and a haunted piñata with colorful illustrations and witty banter to keep the reader and the listener engaged. ”

As the story moves forward, Jorge is pleasantly surprised that Carter has returned, from what was supposed to be a more permanent vacation, just in time to help him solve the mystery of the fires that threaten to doom Boca Falls. Liza and Ernie, friends of Jorge, retell the story of the Miguel Valdez Blackbriar, the rich boy who started the curse, to catch Jorge up to speed on just why Boca Falls is experiencing visits from a haunted piñata.

Along the way, we meet many peculiar characters that become main suspects as the mystery behind the fires start to unfold. The story will keep you guessing and rooting for Jorge, Liza, Ernie and ChupaCarter.

Though Chupacarter and the Haunted Piñata can be read as a stand alone story, if you are interested on more context, I do recommend getting your hands on the first book of the ChupaCarter series, where you are introduced to Carter and how he meets Jorge.

There’s a strong comedic tone throughout the story and not only are the authors able to reach the young reader but parents/guardians as well. Lopez, Calejo and Gutierrez weaved together a story full of small town folklores, fires, suspects, a talking chupacabra, and a haunted piñata with colorful illustrations and witty banter to keep the reader and the listener engaged.

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George Lopez's multifaceted career encompasses television, film, stand-up comedy, and late-night programs. He currently stars in and executive produces the NBC sitcom Lopez vs. Lopez, and he can also be seen in his Netflix original comedy special, We'll Do It for Half. His autobiography Why You Crying? was a New York Times bestseller. He has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was named one of the 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America by TIME magazine and one of the Top Ten Favorite Television Personalities by Harris Poll. ChupaCarter is his first series for children. Visit him online at GeorgeLopez.com.

Ryan Calejo is an award-winning author born and raised in South Florida. His critically acclaimed Charlie Hernández series has been featured on half a dozen state reading lists and is a two-time gold medal winner of the Florida Book Awards. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @RyanCalejo.

Santy Gutiérrez grew up in Vigo and now lives in Corunna (La Coruña), both seaside cities in Spain. In his career, he has won acclaim as the Best Spanish Young Editorial Cartoonist and Best Galician Caricaturist, and he founded BAOBAB Studio Artists' Collective. His wife and son are his personal inspirations. Follow him on Instagram @SantyGutierrez_Art.

Angela “Angie” Ybarra is a senior student enrolled in the Nontraditional Degree Program (NDP) at Northeastern Illinois University. She hopes to work as a grant writer to assist local nonprofit organizations that address the issues of gentrification within Chicago's NorthWest side and help them find funding for their work. Angie loves to give her audience the opportunity to formulate their own views by presenting the facts or points of interest with the hope to move her audience into action.

“Journalism is what maintains democracy. It’s the force for progressive social change.” —Andrew Vachss, Author