"Following the success of the Flash Fiction and Sudden Fiction series, editors Robert Shapard and James Thomas join with Ray Gonzalez in offering some of the best new and recent short-short stories by U.S. Latino and Latin American writers. Featuring an introduction by the much-lauded Argentine writer Luisa Valenzuela, Sudden Fiction Latino celebrates work from stars like Junot Dfaz, Sandra Cisneros, and Roberto Bolofio: masters like Gabriel Garda Marquez, Isabel Allende, and Jorge Luis Borges; and rising talents like Andrea Saenz, Daniel Alarcon, and Alicita Rodriguez. From as little as half a page long to a few pages, these stories are moving, challenging, humorous, artful, sometimes political, and altogether spectacular - and reveal significant distinctions and common ground between U.S. Latino and Latin American literature." --Book Jacket.

Presents over seventy short stories five pages long or less by such American authors as Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury, Langston Hughes, and Raymond Carver, and includes authors' commentary on the genre.

SHAPARD/NEW SUDDEN FICTION

This collection brings together 53 stories that span the history of Latin American literature and represent the most dazzling achievements in the form. It covers the entire history of Latin American short fiction, from the colonial period to present.

A dazzling new anthology of the very best very short fiction from around the world. What is a flash fiction called in other countries? In Latin America it is a micro, in Denmark kortprosa, in Bulgaria mikro razkaz. These short shorts, usually no more than 750 words, range from linear narratives to the more unusual: stories based on mathematical forms, a paragraph-length novel, a scientific report on volcanic fireflies that proliferate in nightclubs. Flash has always—and everywhere—been a form of experiment, of possibility. A new entry in the lauded Flash and Sudden Fiction anthologies, this collection includes 86 of the most beautiful, provocative, and moving narratives by authors from six continents, including best-selling writer Etgar Keret, Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah, Korean screenwriter Kim Young-ha, Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz, and Argentinian “Queen of the Microstory” Ana María Shua, among many others. These brilliantly chosen stories challenge readers to widen their vision and celebrate both the local and the universal.

The first-ever collection of Latin American science fiction in English.

Deluxe -- Thank You -- Pelham Road -- There Is No Mike Here -- Things People Said: An Essay in Seven Steps -- Temporary Talismans -- Six Hours from Anywhere You Want to Be -- No One Is Ordinary; Everyone Is Ordinary -- Ring Theory -- Saris and Sorrows -- Voice Texting with My Mother.

Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. "In her marvelous debut, Florian tackles the "clang and bang" of our inattention with a linguistic instrument so fine the pages appear to have been etched. Think Durer offering up the bits and achingly rich pieces of his Melencolia I, or Schongauer filling the air with his intricate demons...Telescope will teach your eyes something new"--Laird Hunt. "A wondrous book, filled at every turn with pleasures and astonishments. It makes one love the world all over again"--Carole Maso. Of Colombian and Puerto Rican descent, Sandy Florian was born in New York and raised in Latin America. She holds an MFA from Brown and is a PhD candidate at Denver University. This is her first book.

In the title story of this collection, Isabela is minding her family’s restaurant, drinking her dad’s beer, when Frida Kahlo and the Virgen de Guadalupe walk in. Even though they’re dressed like cholas, the girl immediately recognizes Frida’s uni-brow and La Virgen’s crown. They want to give her advice about the quinceanera her parents are forcing on her. In fact, their lecture (don’t get pregnant, go to school, be proud of your indigenous roots) helps Isabela to escape her parents’ physical and sexual abuse. But can she really run away from the self-hatred they’ve created? These inter-related stories, mostly set in East Los Angeles, uncover the lives of a conflicted Mexican-American community. In “Sabado Gigante,” Bernardo drinks himself into a stupor every Saturday night. “Aqui no es mi tierra,” he cries, as he tries to ease the sorrow of a life lived far from home. Meanwhile, his son Gustavo struggles with his emerging gay identity and Maritza, the oldest daughter, is expected to cook and clean for her brother, even though they live in East LA, not Guadalajara or Chihuahua. In “Powder Puff,” Mireya spends hours every day applying her make-up, making sure to rub the foundation all the way down her neck so it looks like her natural color. But no matter how much she rubs and rubs, her skin is no lighter. Estella Gonzalez vividly captures her native East LA in these affecting stories about a marginalized people dealing with racism, machismo and poverty. In painful and sometimes humorous scenes, young people try to escape the traditional expectations of their family. Other characters struggle with anger and resentment, often finding innovative ways to exact revenge for slights both real and imagined. Throughout, music—traditional and contemporary—accompanies them in the search for love and acceptance.

A radical combination of emerging and established Mexican authors of original tales of the fantastic.