Palabra Power: 10 Latina Authors You Need to Know

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Every few years when you least expect it a new crop of talented Latina authors who’ve dedicated tumultuous years honing their craft and writing in solitude, finally give birth to debut works that begin to slowly get noticed by U.S. readers and thus catch on fire.

Who are some of these essential Latina writers breaking into the national literary landscape at the moment? The following ten writers have demanded that the world take notice of their fierceness on the page. In the descriptions below you’ll see how the zeitgeist in Latina literature is not only centered on identity anymore but in the world of young adult fiction, science fiction, dystopian futures and fantasy settings. There are also unabashed queer stories, erotica scenes, and even one author writing for Marvel comics about a Latina superhero named none other than America.

6Daisy Hernández

Daisy Hernandez Latinx author
Photo Credit daisyhernandez.com

Many have followed Hernandez’s ascending trail from a sweet, yet cojones-busting columnist at Ms. magazine to a fierce memoirist and co-editor of the landmark anthology Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism (Seal Press, July, 2019). This seminal women’s studies collection with portraits of American life as seen through the eyes of young women of color will release an updated edition later this year. So, when in 2014 Hernández finally published A Cup of Water under My Bed (Penguin Random House), her long awaited memoir about growing up queer in a Colombian-Cuban family (translated into the Spanish), her fans were finally able to read about her life and feel inspired themselves. The Los Angeles Review of Books wrote: Hernández seamlessly combines the familiar genres of the ‘coming out’ story and the ‘coming of age’ story into a unique memoir of self-discovery.”