A list of contemporary Hispanic authors to add to your to be read (TBR) pile. This list includes fiction and nonfiction titles, as well as titles in multiple formats, including digital.


Compiled by:
Erica B.
American Dreamer

Adriana Herrera
Adult Fiction - Herrera

For Nesto Vasquez, moving his Afro-Caribbean food truck from New York City to the wilds of Upstate New York is a huge gamble. Jude Fuller is proud of the life he’s built on the banks of Cayuga Lake. Until he tries Ithaca’s most-talked-about new lunch spot and works up the courage to flirt with the handsome owner. An opportunity too good to pass up could mean a way to stay together and an incredible future for them both… A great first entry in this Afro-Latinx romance series.


Children of the Land

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
Adult Nonfiction - 800.92 Hernandez Her

With beauty, grace, and honesty, Castillo recounts his and his family's encounters with a system that treats them as criminals for seeking safe, ordinary lives. He writes of the Sunday afternoon when he opened the door to an ICE officer who had one hand on his holster, of the hours he spent making a fake social security card so that he could work to support his family, of his fathers deportation and the decade that he spent waiting to return to his wife and children only to be denied reentry. Great for people who want a personal story about immigration in the US.


Fruit of the Drunken Tree

Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Adult Fiction - Rojasco

A mesmerizing debut set against the backdrop of the devastating violence of 1990's Colombia about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that threatens to undo them both. A moving novel that celebrates the lives and history of women who witness war.


Gods of Jade and Shadow

Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Science Fiction & Fantasy - SF Morenog

The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather’s house to listen to any fast tunes. When she accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld. This is a great read for fans of Urban Fantasy.


Her Body and Other Parties

Carmen Maria Machado
Adult Fiction - Machado

 In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. Great for fans of Samantha Irby.


The House of Impossible Beauties

Joseph Cassara
Adult Fiction - Cassara

Burned by her traumatic past, Angel is new to the drag world, new to ball culture, and has a yearning inside of her to help create family for those without. When she falls in love with Hector, a beautiful young man who dreams of becoming a professional dancer, the two decide to form the House of Xtravaganza, the first-ever all-Hispanic house in the Harlem ball circuit. This is a great novel about the 1980s ball circuit, great for fans of Pose.


Hurricane Season

Fernanda Melchor
Adult Fiction - Melchor

The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse by a group of children propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village. This novel is entrancing, explosive, and unforgettable.


In the Dream House

Carmen Maria Machado
Adult Nonfiction - 800.92 Machado Mac

The author's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. A dark and compelling read that should not be missed.


LatiNext

Felicia Chavez, José Olivarez, Willie Perdomo
- editor
Adult Nonfiction - 811.608 Lat

A BreakBeat Poets anthology that opposes silence and re-mixes the soundtrack of the Latinx diaspora across diverse poetic traditions. Poets speak from an array of nationalities, genders, sexualities, races, and writing styles, staking a claim to our cultural and civic space. Great for fans of poetry and hip-hop.


Mexican Gothic

Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Adult Fiction - Morenog

After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemi Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She's not sure what to expect, but finds that there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family's once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemi digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. This is great for fans of gothic literature.


Photographic : the life of Graciela Iturbide

Isabel Quintero
Graphic Novels - GN 770.92 Iturbide Qui

A blending of photographs and illustrations trace the life and work of Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, who embarked on a journey across Mexico and the world. Full of beautiful illustrations, this graphic novels is a must for art fans.


Sabrina & Corina

Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Adult Fiction - Fajardo

Kali Fajardo-Anstine's magnetic story collection breathes life into her Latina characters of Indigenous ancestry and the land they inhabit in the American West. Against the remarkable backdrop of Denver, Colorado—a place that is as fierce as it is exquisite—these women navigate the land the way they navigate their lives: with caution, grace, and quiet force. Digging into the untold stories of Hispanic women in the US, this collection is great for short story lovers.


Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land

Noé Alvarez
Adult Nonfiction - 796.4292 Alvarez Alv

Spirit Run is Noé Álvarez’s account of the four months he spends trekking from Canada to Guatemala alongside Native Americans representing nine nations, all of whom are seeking brighter futures through running, self-exploration, and renewed relationships with the land they’ve traversed. For fans of running and the book Born to Run.


These Ghosts Are Family

Maisy Card
Adult Fiction - Card

A man on his deathbed reveals that he stole another man’s identity decades earlier, traces the family’s history from colonial Jamaica to present-day Harlem and reconnects with the firstborn daughter he never knew. Deeply moving, this is a great read for fans of magical realism


Tonta

Jaime Hernandez
Graphic Novels - GN Hernand Tonta

In this graphic novel, teenager Tonta is staying for the weekend with her half-sister, the self-absorbed Vivian. At home, Tonta's stepfather is shot during a botched burglary, which leads to the discovery of family secrets that require Tonta to confront some unpleasant truths that she previously managed to suppress or remain ignorant of. This graphic novel is a fun ride for fans of coming of age stories.


Virgin : poems

Analicia Sotelo.
Adult Nonfiction - 811.6 Sot

In Virgin, Sotelo walks the line between autobiography and mythmaking, offering up identities like dishes at a feast. These poems devour and complicate tropes of femininity--of naiveté, of careless abandon--before sharply exploring the intelligence and fortitude of women, how “far & wide, / how dark & deep / this frigid female mind can go.” This is a great volume for poetry lovers and feminists.