#22 (English) Representing Peruvian Immigrants in American Literature with Melissa Rivero, Author of The Affairs of the Falcóns

Melissa Rivero is the author of The Affairs of the Falcóns, which won the 2019 New American Voices Award and a 2020 International Latino Book Award. The book was also longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel Prize, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Born in Lima, Peru, and raised in Brooklyn, she is a graduate of NYU and Brooklyn Law School. Melissa currently works as in-house legal counsel at a startup. She still lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Connect with Melissa via:

• IG: @melissarivero_

• Website: https://www.melissa-rivero.com/

In this episode:

Melissa shares the inspiration and journey to write and publish her book, The Affairs of the Falcóns

How writing - and other creative pursuits - can feel like a luxury or something only the privileged could do

Her Pucallpa roots, growing up Peruvian in New York City, and now raising bilingual and multi-cultural children

Book/Authors Recommendations:

• Blood of the Dawn by Claudia Salazar Jiménez,

• Cristina Garcia,

• Ada Limón’s Poetry,

• Mario Vargas Llosa,

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