This week, acclaimed authors Reyna Grande and Juan Martinez discuss Grande’s life and writing, in particular her two most recent books: A Ballad of Love and Glory, a historical novel set during the Mexican-American War; and an anthology of immigrant voices she co-edited called Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings. The Spanish version of her recent novel is also available as Corrido de Amor y Gloria.
This conversation originally took place October 16th, 2022 and was recorded live at the American Writers Museum.
REYNA GRANDE is the author of the bestselling memoir, The Distance Between Us, (Atria, 2012) where she writes about her life before and after she arrived in the United States from Mexico as an undocumented child immigrant. The much-anticipated sequel, A Dream Called Home (Atria), was released in 2018. Her other works include the novels, Across a Hundred Mountains, (Atria, 2006) and Dancing with Butterflies (Washington Square Press, 2009) which were published to critical acclaim. The Distance Between Us is also available as a young readers edition from Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Division–Aladdin. Her books have been adopted as the common read selection by schools, colleges, and cities across the country. Her most recent titles are A Ballad of Love and Glory (Atria, 2022), a novel set during the Mexican-American War, and an anthology by and about undocumented Americans called Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival and New Beginnings (HarperVia, 2022).
JUAN MARTINEZ is the author of the short-story collection Best Worst American, winner of the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award. His work has appeared in various literary journals and anthologies, including Glimmer Train, McSweeney’s, TriQuarterly, Conjunctions, Norton’s Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America, and The Perpetual Engine of Hope: Stories Inspired by Iconic Vegas Photographs.