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Brent Ameneyro

From Electric Literature: 10 Afro-Latina Writers You Should Read Right Now






Writer, poet, and university professor Jennifer Maritza McCauley shares some of the results of her search for representation in literature. She is candid about having been exposed to mostly white writers in school, and how, as the daughter of a Black American father and Puerto Rican mother, she had to do her own leg work to find literary role models. “Our voices should be heard and Afro-Latinas deserve a spot in the literary canon,” McCauley says. She provides a brief headnote to the following Afro-Latina writers and their collections:


Ivelisse Rodriguez, author of the story collection Love War Stories

Jasminne Mendez, author of the hybrid collection Night-Blooming Jasmin(n)e

Mayra Santos-Febres, author of the novels Sirena Selena and Huracanada

Yesenia Montilla, author of the poetry collection The Pink Box and Muse Found in a Colonized Body

Raina León, author of the poetry collection black god mother this body

Elizabeth Acevedo, author of the novel-in-verse The Poet X

Ariana Brown, author of the poetry collections We Are Owed. and Sana Sana

Jaquira Díaz, author of the novel Ordinary Girls

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