Notes and Links to Ruben Reyes’ Work

For Episode 246, Pete welcomes Ruben Reyes, and the two discuss, among other topics, his childhood love of sci fi and fantasy, his family’s diverse language history, formative and transformative books and writers, lessons learned from early writing, and salient themes and issues in his collection like agency, power dynamics, notions of “home,” grief, and various forms of violence, as well as larger narratives about the immigration system, family units, and traumas and silences.

Ruben Reyes Jr. is the son of two Salvadoran immigrants. He completed his MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

He is a graduate of Harvard College where he studied History and Literature and Latinx Studies. His writing has appeared in Audible Originals, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Florida Review Online, Business Insider, The Acentos Review, Strange Horizons, Poynter, and other publications.

His debut story collection, There is a Rio Grande in Heaven, is forthcoming from Mariner Books. Originally from Southern California, he lives in Brooklyn.

Buy There is a Rio Grande in Heaven

Ruben Reyes’ Website

At about 1:45, Harvard and secret clubs and “annoying social clubs” are discussed

At about 3:00, Ruben details the “chaotic” and exciting leadup to the August 6 publication date of his collection

At about 3:45, Ruben shares “generous feedback” from blurbists and other early readers

At about 5:50, Ruben shouts out upcoming book events-Brooklyn with Greenlight and Bryant Park, and Libro Mobile in Santa Ana

At about 6:50, Ruben talks about growing up in Diamond Bar and how it’s emblematic or not of LA and California

At about 8:00, Ruben expands upon his language history and that of his family, and he also talks about growing up on fantasy books and Michael Crichton and other “conceptual sci-fi” works

At about 10:35, Pete and Ruben strategize on how to get JK Rowling off Twitter and her “misguided” diatribes

At about 12:30, Ruben talks about formative writers and writing from his high school and college days

At about 14:15, Ruben discusses early writing and lessons learned from the work

At about 16:30, Mad appreciation for Borges and how his work was against the “conventional craft”

At about 18:30-Ruben highlights the influence of magical realism and its limits and strengths

At about 20:00, The two discuss the evocative epigraphs for the story collection, from Roque Dalton and Ray Bradbury

At about 23:35, The two discuss the opening short from the collection and the multiple stories that feature “Alternate Histories”; Ruben highlights Jamel Brinkley’s guidance

At about 26:45, Ruben explains why he thinks the story has two starting points, and the two discuss the second story, “He Eats His Own” with its mangoes, ritual, and power dynamics and immigrant sagas

At about 29:10, Ruben responds to Pete’s questions between the balance and relationships between allegory and plot

At about 31:00, Pete wonders if Ruben “stands in judgment of [his] characters”

At about 33:50, Pete asks Ruben about the ramifications of the relationship between Steven and Tomás, a Salvadoran immigrant who has experienced a lot of grief; Ruben expands on his interest in “escape valves” for characters

At about 36:35, The two discuss “Self-Made Man” and its connection to the complexities of immigration

At about 38:40, Ruben discusses “baselines” and the ways in which he resolved to write “three-dimensional characters” and focused on systems and reasons for traumas

At about 40:30, Agency as a theme in the story is discussed through “Quiero Perrear…” and its dynamic characters

At about 42:00, Pete and Ruben delight in the opening line of “Quiero Perrear…” and its connections to Kafka’s Metamorphosis

At about 44:20, Pete is highly complimentary of “My Abuela, the Puppet,” and Ruben explains the story’s genesis and connections to real-life

At about 47:20, “Salvadoran Slice of Mars” as a way of showing inadequacies of the immigration system is discussed

At about 48:55, The themes of “do-overs” and mourning and grief and the ways in which we view those who have passed are discussed in connection with a particularly meaningful story

At about 52:20, Ruben discusses the historical fiction involving El Salvador’s 1932 Matanza of a story in the collection that is one of the “alternate histories”

At about 53:45, the two discuss the incredible work of Roberto Lovato and ideas of “unforgetting” and silences and trauma

At about 55:50, Ruben responds to Pete’s question about a story that lays out an alternate history of Selena as Ruben brings up systems and fame and the ways that celebrities are treated after their deaths

At about 58:40, Ruben details how immigrants often think of “What if” so often

At about 59:40, “Variations on Your Migrant’s Life” is explored, and Ruben talks about its inspirations

At about 1:04:15, Valeria and Oscar Ramirez Martinez (graphic picture discussed is not featured in article) and their story, fictionalized in a gutting final story, is discussed

At about 1:07:15, Ruben shouts out places to buy his book and gives his contact info/social media info

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Please tune in for Episode 245 with Shannon Sanders, who is a Black writer, attorney, and author of the linked story collection Company, which was winner of the 2023 LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Additionally, her short fiction was the recipient of a 2020 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.

Please tune in for Episode 247 with Christina Cooke. Her writing has appeared in/is forthcoming from The Caribbean Writer, PRISM International, Prairie Schooner, and Lambda Literary Review, among others. A MacDowell Fellow and Journey Prize winner, her critically-acclaimed Broughtupsy, her debut novel, is out as of January 2024.

The episode will go live on August 13.

Lastly, please go to https://ceasefiretoday.com/, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.