'Sabrina & Corina' Author Reflects on Redefining the American West

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, a grandmother’s home with a pot of green chili cooking on the stove and a Denver neighborhood carved up by gentrification all serve as scenes that color Sabrina & Corina, Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s debut collection of short stories. The author situates the lives of her working-class Latina characters in a distinctly Colorado context and, by doing so, subverts popular imaginations of the American West along the way. It’s a feat that propelled the book to deserved acclaim, but before that, the Denver-based writer had simpler ambitions in mind when Sabrina & Corina first hit the shelves last year.

“I just really wanted the book to be able to find readers,” says Fajardo-Anstine, reflecting back. “I was very afraid that it’d just get buried and hidden because a lot of books turn out that way.”

Read more on my monthly "Off the Page" column for LibroMobile:

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