Guatemalan-American Authors Who Have Stormed Into the Literary World
According to the Pew Research Center, 1.4 million Latinos of Guatemalan descent lived in the U.S in 2017. They are the 6th largest group in the U.S. This list is full of Guatemalan-American authors who have enjoyed tremendous success.
Rebecca Balcárcel authored The Other Half of Happy, a Pura Belpré Honor Book and ALSC Notable Book that was named one of the Top Ten First Novels of 2019 by the American Library Association’s Booklist. Rebecca took her MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars and received their Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in journals such as Third Coast and North American Review. Pecan Grove Press of St. Mary’s University published her book of poems, Palabras in Each Fist.
Francisco Goldman is the author of four novels, The Long Night of White Chickens, The Ordinary Seaman, The Divine Husband, and Say Her Name, and two works of nonfiction, The Art of Political Murder and The Interior Circuit: A Mexico City Chronicle. His novel, Monkey Boy, was published in 2019.
Omar S. Castañeda is the author of Cunuman, Among the Volcanoes and Abuela’s Weave. He also co-edited New Visions: Fiction by Florida Writer.
Sylvia Sellers-Garcia is the author of When the Ground Turns in its Sleep, Distance and Documents at the Spanish Empire’s Periphery, The Woman on the Windowsill: A Tale of Mystery in Several Parts, and other scholarly works.
Maya Chinchilla was published work in anthologies and journals including: Mujeres de Maíz, Sinister Wisdom, Americas y Latinas: A Stanford Journal of Latin American Studies, Cipactli Journal, and The Lunada Literary Anthology. She is the co-editor of Desde El Epicentro: An anthology of Central American Poetry and Art and is a lecturer at San Francisco State University.
David Unger is the author of The Mastermind (2016), Para mi, eres divina (2011), The Price of Escape (2011), Vivir En El Maldito Tropico (2004), Life in the Damn Tropics (2002)
Click on the links below and check out how the following authors have also made great contributions to Guatemalan American literature.
