Overview

Showcasing a variety of voices shaped in and by a place that has been for them a crossroads and a land of contradictions, Home in Florida presents a selection of the best literature of displacement and uprootedness by some of the most talented contemporary Latinx writers who have called Florida home. Featuring fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by Richard Blanco, Jaquira Díaz, Patricia Engel, Jennine Capó Crucet, Reinaldo Arenas, Judith Ortíz Cofer, and many others, this collection of renowned and award-winning contributors includes several who are celebrated in their countries of origin but have not yet been discovered by readers in the United States. The writers in this volume—first- , second- , and third-generation immigrants to Florida from Cuba, Mexico, Honduras, Perú, Argentina, Chile, and other countries—reflect the diversity of Latinx experiences across the state. Editor Anjanette Delgado characterizes the work in this collection as literature of uprootedness, literatura del desarraigo, a Spanish literary tradition and a term used by Reinaldo Arenas. With the heart-changing, here-and-there perspective of attempting life in environments not their own, these writers portray many different responses to displacement, each occupying their own unique place on what Delgado calls a spectrum of belonging. Together, these writers explore what exactly makes Florida home for those struggling between memory and presence. In these works, as it is for many people seeking to make a new life in the United States, Florida is the place where the uprooted stop to catch their breath long enough to wonder, “What if I stayed? What if here could one day be my home?”

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9781683402503

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Reviews

Shimmering and sharp, lush with laughter and lament, this multifaceted Latinx love letter to Florida reveals worlds within worlds. It teaches readers 'how' for us, in the words of one contributor, 'it's possible to dance and cry at the same time.' Indispensable. - Joy Castro, author of Island of Bones: Essays; What a gift this book is, for all of us living the in-between but also for those who want to understand the unseen lesions of uprootedness. From Patricia Engle's skewering to Achy Obejas's hilarity to Jaquira Diaz's punch in the gut to Ana Menendez's exquisite writing to Carlos Harrison's spot-on observations to Chantel Acevedo's and Amina Gautier's graceful prose to Richard Blanco's and Mia Leonin's delicious poetry (and every piece in between): Gracias! - Ana Veciana-Suarez, author of The Chin Kiss King: A Novel; The selections in this anthology display a sensitivity to the broader trends and contexts of today's Latinx short story by focusing on stories that tell of displacement and its aftermath. - Isabel Alvarez Borland, coeditor of Cuban-American Literature and Art: Negotiating Identities; In these pages, recent and not-so-recent immigrants sing the praises as well as own up to the agony of conflicting cultural allegiances and inherited memories. A remarkable sample of writing by authors from many countries that drives home the idea of Florida as a distinctive place in the imagination of the Americas. - Iraida H. Lopez, author of Impossible Returns: Narratives of the Cuban Diaspora.

Author Information

Anjanette Delgado is a Puerto Rican writer and journalist based in Miami. She is the author of The Heartbreak Pill: A Novel and The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho. She has written for the New York Times “Modern Love” column, Vogue, NPR, HBO, the Kenyon Review, Pleiades, the Hong Kong Review, and others.

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