Angie Cruz, Cleyvis Natera & Ru Freeman: A Conversation

Angie Cruz is the author of the novels Soledad, Let It Rain Coffee, and Dominicana, which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize and a Good Morning America Book Club pick. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Aster(ix), a literary and arts journal, and is an associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Cara Romero, the protagonist of Cruz’s How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water: A Novel (Flatiron Books), thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. For 12 sessions, she recounts her turbulent love affairs; her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela; her struggles with debt, gentrification, and loss; and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight.

Cleyvis Natera was born in the Dominican Republic; she migrated to the United States when she was 10 years old and grew up in New York City. She holds a B.A. from Skidmore College and an MFA from New York University. Her debut, Neruda on the Park: A Novel (Ballantine Books), introduces readers to the Guerreros, who have lived in Nothar Park, a predominantly Dominican part of New York City, for 20 years. So when demolition begins on a neighboring tenement, Eusebia, an elder of the community, takes matters into her own hands by devising an increasingly dangerous series of schemes to stop the construction of the luxury condos. Meanwhile, Eusebia’s daughter, Luz, a rising associate at a top Manhattan law firm, becomes distracted by a torrid romance with the handsome white developer at the company her mother so vehemently opposes. While Luz’s father, Vladimir, secretly designs their retirement home in the Dominican Republic, mother and daughter collide, ramping up tensions to a near-fatal climax. Neruda on the Park weaves a rich and vivid tapestry of a community and the sacrifices we make to protect what we love most.

Ru Freeman is the author of A Disobedient Girl and On Sal Mal Lane, and the editor of Extraordinary Rendition: American Writers on Palestine and Indivisible: Global Leaders on Shared Security. She directs the Artist Network at Narrative 4. Sleeping Alone: Stories (Graywolf) is a rich and textured collection about crossing borders, both real and imagined. These stories explore an important question: What is the toll of feeling foreign in one’s land, to others, or even to oneself? A cast of misfits, young and old, single and coupled, even entire family units, confront startling changes wrought by difficult circumstances or harrowing choices. Their stories span the world, moving from Maine to Dublin to Philadelphia to other points in between, addressing secrets kept by siblings in Sri Lanka, or the life of itinerants in New York City, paying attention to the dance between the intimate details of our lives and our public selves.