This fall I’ll be running a reading group called “Creating a Nuyorican Identity” at the Center for Fiction, using prototypical and popular texts to examine the PR-NY character. I’m not saying we’ll have a definitive answer to identity, but it should be fun looking at how that identity has been portrayed and how it has evolved.

We’ll be looking at coming-of-age narratives (a genre publishers LOVE for with Latino/a/x/es) Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas, When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera, and We The Animals by Justin Torres. These are fairly obvious choices, but I will recommend additional reading material for those who want to broaden their study of this idea.

For more information and to sign up for the group, go here:

https://centerforfiction.org/group-workshop/creating-a-nuyorican-identity-a-reading-group-with-richie-narvaez/