Elena Sheppard and I worked together when she had a proposal and wanted to approach publishers. She landed with St. Martin’s Press, and the book is out today with coverage in People Magazine.
Elena has argued for more texts in women’s history to be incorporated in high school curricula, as you can read in her piece for CNN, and has spoken publicly about being diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy when she was pregnant with her twins (ABC News). This book is, at its heart, about the strong women who made her family—and the events that would shape their family history. If you’re looking to read more about Cuba, in Princeton Alumni Weekly, she recommended titles about Cuba by Ana Menéndez, Ada Ferrer, and Wendy Guerra (translated by Achy Obejas).
From her article today in LatinaMedia.co:
“When my mother would tell me about her own girlhood in Cifuentes, Cuba – riding bicycles through her neighborhood, playing on her living room’s brightly colored tiled floors, listening to her father recite poetry on the palm-tree-breezed terrace after dinner – I felt like I was touching a part of our family’s history that was deeply a part of me too, even if I’d never seen it first hand. Their longing for their island was contagious, and their memories helped me understand that I, too, am Cuban, that heritage follows people no matter where they make a home.”
You can reserve tickets to the Books Are Magic launch (the $10 will count as a gift card to Books Are Magic), where she’ll be in conversation with the great Emma Straub, or stream the event on Youtube Live.
