LATIN AMERICAN FICTION & IMAGINATION

3:00 pm - 3:45 pm
| Location of Session: Library Auditorium
Adult Sessions

Start of Signing: 4:00 PM
| Signing Location: Adult Signing Tent

My Schedule

About the Event

From pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to racism in the Bronx, Latin American Shared Stories, edited by V. Castro, presents a selection of speculative stories and fascinating essays highlighting the voices, mythologies, folklore, and storytelling prowess of authors from Latin American countries or writing in the traditions of the Latin American diaspora. These stories are far-ranging, exploring heritage and imagining new worlds and futures. Richard Santos and David Bowles join the panel to discuss their contributions to the anthology.

About the Authors

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Author

V. Castro

V. Castro is a two-time Bram Stoker Award–nominated, Mexican American writer from San Antonio, Texas, now residing in the United Kingdom. She writes horror, erotic horror, romance, and science fiction. Her books include The Haunting of Alejandra, Immortal Pleasures, Aliens: Vasquez (film tie-in), Mestiza Blood, The Queen of the Cicadas, Rebel Moon, The Pink Agave Motel, and Goddess of Filth.

Her new novel is Maria the Wanted, and she edited the anthology Latin American Shared Stories.

Photo Credit: Lobo

David Bowles

David Bowles is an award-winning Mexican American author and translator from Texas. His books include The Smoking Mirror; Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky; They Call Me Güero; They Call Her Fregona; The Prince & the Coyote; and Secret of the Moon Conch. He has been published in The New York Times, School Library Journal, Strange Horizons, English Journal, Rattle, Translation Review, and the Journal of Children’s Literature. In 2017, he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters, and in 2020, he cofounded #DignidadLiteraria, a social-justice movement advocating for greater Latinx representation in publishing.

David is joining the Book Festival to discuss Latin American Shared Stories, to which he contributed.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Author

Richard Santos

Richard Santos’s debut novel, Trust Me, was a finalist for the Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards and was named one of the best debuts of the year by CrimeReads. He’s the editor of the anthology A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories. His fiction has been nominated for the International Thriller Writers Awards and has been cited as a notable story in Best American Mystery and Suspense. His stories, nonfiction, and essays have appeared in Texas Monthly, Slate, The Rumpus, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Oxford American, riverSedge, Austin Noir, Lone Stars Rising, and more.

Richard is joining the Book Festival to discuss his contribution to Latin American Shared Stories.

Moderator

Kimberly Garza

Kimberly Garza is the author of the critically acclaimed novel-in-stories The Last Karankawas (2022), a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Her second novel, Between You a River, will be released December 2026. A native Texan, she is an associate professor of English at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she directs the Creative Writing Program.