From integrating culture to the pros of magical realism and around to how she landed her agent, the content in this episode with guest María Alejandra Barrios Vélez pulls from a well of experience and offers firsthand advice to new and aspiring writers everywhere. Also talk about María's debut book, scheduled just weeks out from this episode air date on Am I Write!

Resources

Read THE WAVES TAKE YOU HOME
Website: https://mariaalejandrabarriosvelez.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariaalebvelezwrites/
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

About María

María Alejandra Barrios Vélez is a writer born in Barranquilla, Colombia. She has an MA in creative writing from the University of Manchester and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and scruffy dog, Gus.

She was the 2020 SmokeLong Flash Fiction Fellow, and her stories have been published in Shenandoah Literary, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, El Malpensante, Fractured Lit, SmokeLong Quarterly, The Offing, and more. Her work has been supported by organizations such as Vermont Studio Center, Kweli, Caldera Arts, and the New Orleans Writers’ Residency.

The Waves Take You Home is María’s debut, inspired by the resilience and strength of the women in her family and the Caribbean city she spent most of her life in.