A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE - A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK - REVIEWED ON THE FRONT COVER

From GMA BOOK CLUB PICK and WOMEN'S PRIZE FINALIST Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana, an electrifying new novel about a woman who has lost everything but the chance to finally tell her story

Will have you LAUGHING line after line...Cruz AIMS FOR THE HEART, and fires. --Los Angeles Times

An endearing portrait of a FIERCE, FUNNY woman. --The Washington Post

Cara Romero 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. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous 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.

Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz's most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.

Angélica has spent the summer in the Dominican Republic with her tías and primas, her grandparents, and their parrot, but soon she'll have to say goodbye. The end of summer means returning home to start school on another shore. Before she leaves, her grandfather gives her the perfect gift. It's something with the power to make people dance as fast as the wings of a hummingbird: a güira. Angélica falls in love with this musical instrument, though nobody shares her enthusiasm at first. What is that sound, they say, pennies inside a tin cup? But on a hot, sunny day, in the land of Washington Heights, where the frío frío woman scrapes ice for a long line of customers and the men on the corner plunk dominoes on a makeshift carboard table, Angélica shows her neighbors the power of la güira.

Angélica and la Güira lovingly explores music and community, the wisdom and guidance of our elders, and the joy and freedom of dancing in the street. No matter where we are, music brings us closer to home. Don't miss the Spanish-language edition of this book, Angélica y la güira.

Angélica ha pasado todo el verano en la República Dominicana con sus tías y primas, sus abuelos y con la cotorra de al lado. Pronto, tendrá que despedirse. El final del verano significa regresar a casa para volver a la escuela en la otra orilla. Antes de irse, su abuelo le da el regalo perfecto, algo con el poder de atraer multitudes y mover a la gente tan rápido como las alas de un picaflor: una güira. Angélica se enamora de esta lata sin fondo y peine de hojalata que mantiene el ritmo, aunque al principio nadie parece compartir su entusiasmo. Qué es ese sonido? dicen. Centavos dentro de una lata?. Pero un día soleado y caluroso en la tierra de Washington Heights, donde la mujer del frío-frío raspa hielo para una larga fila de clientes y los hombres de la esquina estrellan fichas de dominó en una improvisada mesa de cartón, Angélica les muestra a sus vecinos el poder de la güira.

Angélica y la güira explora con cariño y ternura la música y la comunidad, así como la sabiduría y guía de nuestros mayores y la alegría y libertad de bailar en la calle! Este libro también disponible en inglés bajo el título Angélica and la Güira.

A young girl harnesses the power of music to bridge the distance between the Dominican Republic and Washington Heights in this jubilant picture book debut by Angie Cruz, bestselling and award-winning author of Dominicana.

Angélica has spent the summer in the Dominican Republic with her tías and primas, her grandparents, and their parrot, but soon she'll have to say goodbye. The end of summer means returning home to start school on another shore. Before she leaves, her grandfather gives her the perfect gift. It's something with the power to make people dance as fast as the wings of a hummingbird: a güira. Angélica falls in love with this musical instrument, though nobody shares her enthusiasm at first. What is that sound, they say, pennies inside a tin cup? But on a hot, sunny day, in the land of Washington Heights, where the frío frío woman scrapes ice for a long line of customers and the men on the corner plunk dominoes on a makeshift carboard table, Angélica shows her neighbors the power of la güira.

Angélica and la Güira lovingly explores music and community, the wisdom and guidance of our elders, and the joy and freedom of dancing in the street. No matter where we are, music brings us closer to home. Don't miss the English-language edition of this book, Angélica and la Güira.

An endearing portrait of a fierce, funny woman. --The Washington Post

Cara Romero creía que trabajaría en una fábrica de lámparas pequeñas por el resto de su vida. Pero cuando, a los cincuenta años, pierde su trabajo en la Gran Recesión, se ve obligada a volver al mercado laboral por la primera vez en décadas. Con el apoyo de un consejero laboral, en vez, Cara comienza a narrar la historia de su vida. En el transcurso de doce sesiones, Cara recuenta sus amoríos tempestuosos, sus relaciones por turnos hirientes y amorosas con su vecina Lulu y su hermana Ángela, sus luchas contra las deudas, la gentrificación y las perdidas, y, eventualmente, lo que realmente sucedió entre ella y su hijo distanciado, Fernando. A medida que Cara enfrenta sus secretos más oscuros y sus arrepentimientos, vemos a una mujer golpeada por la vida, pero que sigue siendo una luchadora. Estructuralmente creativa y emocionalmente caleidoscópica, Cómo no ahogarse en un vaso de agua es la novela más ambiciosa y conmovedora de Angie Cruz hasta el momento, y Cara es una heroína para la posteridad.

Cara Romero 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. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous 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. Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz's most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

Shortlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction, Angie Cruz's Dominicana is a vital portrait of the immigrant experience and the timeless coming-of-age story of a young woman finding her voice in the world

Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America, the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. It doesn't matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year's Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan's free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay.

As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to protect his family's assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on the beach at Coney Island, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, go dancing with Cesar, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.

At eighteen, Soledad couldn't get away fast enough from her contentious family with their endless tragedies and petty fights. Two years later, she's an art student at Cooper Union with a gallery job and a hip East Village walk-up. But when Tía Gorda calls with the news that Soledad's mother has lapsed into an emotional coma, she insists that Soledad's return is the only cure. Fighting the memories of open hydrants, leering men, and slick-skinned teen girls with raunchy mouths and snapping gum, Soledad moves home to West 164th Street. As she tries to tame her cousin Flaca's raucous behavior and to resist falling for Richie--a soulful, intense man from the neighborhood--she also faces the greatest challenge of her life: confronting the ghosts from her mother's past and salvaging their damaged relationship.

Evocative and wise, Soledad is a wondrous story of culture and chaos, family and integrity, myth and mysticism, from a Latina literary light.

Esperanza risked her life fleeing the Dominican Republic for the glittering dream she saw on television, but years later she is still stuck in a cramped tenement with her husband, Santo, and their two children, Bobby and Dallas. She works as a home aide and, at night, hides unopened bills from the credit card company where Santo won't find them when he returns from driving his livery cab.

When Santo's mother dies and his father, Don Chan, comes to Nueva York to live out his twilight years with the Colóns, nothing will ever be the same. Don Chan remembers fighting together with Santo in the revolution against Trujillo's cruel regime, the promise of who his son might have been, had he not fallen under Esperanza's spell.

Let It Rain Coffee is a sweeping novel about love, loss, family, and the elusive nature of memory and desire.

El ltimo d a de 1964, la quincea era Ana Canci n se casa con Juan Ruiz, un hombre veinte a os mayor que ella, en el campo dominicano. Al d a siguiente se vuelve Ana Ruiz, una esposa confinada a un apartamento de un cuarto en Washington Heights. Juan la enga a, abusa y controla, hasta le proh be aprender ingl s. Despu s de un intento fallido de fuga, Ana se entera de que est embarazada. Su madre y su esposo comparan su embarazo a ganar la loter a, su ni a tendr ciudadan a estadounidense. Juan vuelve a la Rep blica Dominicana cuando la guerra civil comienza, dejando a C sar, su hermano, cuidando a Ana. Durante ese descanso del confinamiento ella se enamora genuinamente, lo cual despierta su voluntad de pelear por independizarse de su abusador y por su derecho de permanecer en su patria adoptiva. Un retrato atemporal de feminidad y ciudadan a, que sigue vigente en esta poca de migraci n forzada.

On the last day of 1964, fifteen-year-old Ana Canci n marries Juan Ruiz, a man twice her age, in the Dominican countryside. The following day she becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a one-bedroom in Washington Heights. Juan is unfaithful, abusive, and controlling, he even forbids her from learning English. After a failed escape, Ana learns she is pregnant. Both her mother and husband compare her pregnancy to winning the lottery, her child will have American citizenship. Juan returns briefly to the Dominican Republic when the civil war begins, leaving C sar, his brother, to care for Ana. During that respite from confinement she experiences true love, which awakens her will to fight for independence from her abuser and for the right to stay in her adopted homeland. A timeless portrait of womanhood and citizenship, which rings true in this era of forced migration.

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE - A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK - REVIEWED ON THE FRONT COVER

From GMA BOOK CLUB PICK and WOMEN'S PRIZE FINALIST Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana, an electrifying new novel about a woman who has lost everything but the chance to finally tell her story

Will have you LAUGHING line after line...Cruz AIMS FOR THE HEART, and fires. --Los Angeles Times

An endearing portrait of a FIERCE, FUNNY woman. --The Washington Post

Cara Romero 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. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous 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.

Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz's most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

Shortlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction

Through a novel with so much depth, beauty, and grace, we, like Ana, are forever changed. --Jacqueline Woodson, Vanity Fair

Gorgeous writing, gorgeous story. --Sandra Cisneros

Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America, the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. It doesn't matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year's Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan's free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay.

As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to protect his family's assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on the beach at Coney Island, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, go dancing with Cesar, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.

In bright, musical prose that reflects the energy of New York City, Angie Cruz's Dominicana is a vital portrait of the immigrant experience and the timeless coming-of-age story of a young woman finding her voice in the world.

For whom do we become malleable? When do we break? When do we bend? These are some of the questions being asked and explored by 12 writers who were invited to respond, react to, be in conversation with drawings from Laylah Ali's Studies series.

They wrote back in micro-fictions, creative nonfiction, poems, and pieces that ignore boundaries of genre.

Bending features written work by Victoria Chang, Caro De Robertis, Julian Delgado Lopera, Jaquira Díaz, Patricia Engel, Courtney Faye Taylor, Nimmi Gowrinathan, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Chinelo Okparanta, Shana L. Redmond, Lilliam Rivera, and Alejandro Varela.

Aster(ix) is a laboratory, a space where women writers of color can play and experiment. We celebrate our 10th anniversary with a double best-of issue; this issue will feature Fiction and Interviews.



Angie Cruz: This issue was anchored by a conversation we had with Sandra Cisneros when she visited Pittsburgh, and she spontaneously had us draw maps at the dinner table. How we quickly could see by looking at our maps where we have been and even where we wanted to go. Some of us were very good at it, some of us couldn't barely orient the cities we live in. We understood it was a rare occasion, eight Latino/as, all writers at different stages of our careers, all very much committed to making this world a better place. I think this conversation is the heart of the issue... All the pieces air some dirty laundry. All the pieces in some way share an intimacy between women, between fathers and sons, lovers, friends, mothers and daughters. All swing open the door and allow us into the devastation of loss, what we desire, what we are capable of. Don't you think?

Adriana E. Ramírez: Absolutely One of the things I love about the phrase la ropa sucia se lava en casa, is that there is an inherent contradiction to it--when I think of dirty clothes, I imagine laundry lines, with all the linens on display. Yet, the way the phrase is used, dirty clothes are meant to be hidden, obscured--the mystery preserved. I think this tension/contradiction is helpful, even going back to our maps. Mine was so detailed--anally correct, even. I felt the need to hide it, afterwards. Because there was a shame in being so exact, so nerdy, so eager to show o what I knew. Other people at the table did the opposite. Only three states would be labeled, but the person describing the drawing would boast of their lack of knowledge, root their minimal geographical knowledge in a story, a personal history. Being a little wrong cartographically didn't matter, what mattered was the story. Hence, my shame at hiding my perfectly crisp and white laundry--there's no story there. I wanted the story. That mood, the desire for the imperfect but powerful histories we carry, informed this issue.

Featuring work by: Norma Liliana Valdez, Joe Jiménez, Melissa Lozada-Oliva, Gessy Alvarez, Li Yun Alvarado, Lizz Huerta, Sandra Cisneros, Ivan Velez, Laura Winther Galaviz, Josefina Báez, Marigloria Palma, Carina del Valle Schorske, and Melanie Márquez Adams.

One of my favorite books I have read in years. --Quiara Alegria Hudes, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter of In the Heights

From the beloved author of Dominicana, a GMA Book Club Pick and Women's Prize Finalist, an electrifying and indelible new novel about a woman who has lost everything but the chance to finally tell her story.

Write this down: Cara Romero wants to work.

Cara Romero 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. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous 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.

Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz's most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.

In 2013 when we started Aster(ix), we didn't know what we were committing ourselves to, but for the past five years the journal has been fueled with urgency, love and desire for a space that could house our wild tongue, imagination and vision...

Aster(ix) Journal's Winter 2018 Issue, (Un)bound: Five Years of Asterisms, collects our favorite writing from the Asterisms section of the online journal, writing that embodies the spirit of Aster(ix) five years into our extraordinary adventure.

Edges: An Aster(ix) Anthology features writers, both established and emerging, whose prose and poetry embraces the themes of establishing, breaking, and defying edges.

she stares at the world,
takes it to the edge of
all the words
men weren't able to invent. --Nathalie Handal

Atravesando: An Aster(ix) Anthology features nineteen writers, both established and emerging, whose fiction and poetry embraces the themes of breaking through and crossing over. The writers hail from all over the country, many of whom inhabit liminal spaces, embodying Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands where the borders are often indistinguishable and the characters live in multiple worlds simultaneously. The stories and poems challenge and reveal to us what we trade when we love or are made to love, when we move or are forced to move and how it feels when we experience an unexpected loss. Characters dream of lottery tickets, driving a car, being truly loved; rubber plants, suitcases and misbehaving men are ripped apart; Roosters, husbands and children die. The daughters of Bible-thumping and manipulative mothers, as well as stubborn and ambitious fathers, these women struggle and succeed to carve a space of their own. This book is a true cornucopia of humor, tragedy and sensuality, featuring some of the most compelling and electrifying female protagonists.

Edited by acclaimed writers Angie Cruz and Oindrila Mukherjee, the collection is an essential read. At a time when borders both, psychic and physical, are being threatened and questioned, this anthology reimagines female narratives and the challenges faced by women today.

Aster(ix) is a laboratory, a space where women writers of color can play and experiment. We celebrate our 10th anniversary with a double best-of issue; this issue will feature Poetry and Nonfiction, and Fall 2023 will feature Fiction and Interviews.

My mother loved the moon and would talk to me of their kinship,
of her endless respect for the big pale planet and its pull.
At night she'd stay out on the balcony, smoking and murmuring.
The things they spoke about--who knew.

--Nightgown, Sue Rainsford

What We Love arose from enacting a conversation, by bringing more voices to the table, where we are creating a home with good bones and impeccable intentions, so Aster(ix) can share writing that moves us. We revisited and have revised the Aster(ix) vision to embrace the known and unknown; the courageous and the unpredictable; the real and the unreal; to wrestle with the possible and the impossible; jaguar's chesty roar; magic; what's censored and omitted; love and devotion. What has come forth, through conversations and connections, reading, rereading and arguing was directed by what we love, with love as the torch bearer.

Aster(ix): What We Love compiles some of the most exciting poetry and prose by twenty one writers from all over the world: Dia Felix, Khadijah Queen, Amy Sara Carroll, Magda Kapa, Leila Christine Nadir, Laura Sims, Saudamini Deo, Saretta Morgan, Miranda Mellis, Karen An-hwei Lee, Chika Unigwe, Angela Karee, Kim Dana Kupperman, Janeil Page, Janelle Poe, Aurora Masum-Javed, Sarah Vap, Marlin M. Jenkins, Marie Ndiaye, Mahwash Shoaib and Vahni Capildeo.