News and Events
Winner of Triangle Publishing’s 2023
Edmund White Debut Fiction Award
International Latino Book Award
and among
Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Books of 2022
“Gracefully interweaving environmental topics with explorations of queerness and womanhood,” (Costa Papas, Kirkus Reviews), Arribada is “a suspenseful but tender tale that exemplifies the power of intersectionality. Themes of environmental justice, queer love, and Indigenous rights intersect in González’s mystery”— Starred Kirkus Review
Costa Papas, Tagg Magazine
“Estela González’s debut shines lights on the intersections between environmental justice, Indigenous culture, and queerness.”
“For children, a beach is a playground. For developers, a get-rich opportunity. And for the sea turtles that nest on the picture-perfect stretch of Mexican Pacific coastline in Middlebury College professor Estela González's new novel, a beach is the difference between survival and extinction.”
“González's incantatory prose drifts freely among various perspectives and eras, its fluidity evoking the continuity of family tradition even as Mariana makes discoveries that redefine home for her.
It makes for a powerful, immersive read.”
If ever there were a novel for our times it is Estela Gonzalez’s Arribada.
Deftly crafted, emotionally impacting, truly memorable characters, and a reverberating theme of responsibility, Arribada showcases the author's genuine flair for originality and effective narrative driven storyteller style.—Midwest Book Review
A sample of recent Arribada events
12/19/22 Mazatlán Film and Theater
10/26 Middlebury College, Hillcrest Orchard Room
Vermont Humanities First Wednesdays in Manchester, VT and Rutland, VT
Feria Nacional del Libro de Escritoras Mexicanas
East End Books, Provincetown, MA
Global Girls Online Book Club Author of the Day!
Hispanic American Library, Springfield, MA
Giovanni’s Room, Philadelphia
Bureau of General Services Queer Division, The LGBT Community Center, NYC
Queer the Shelves Book Fest, Nottingham, UK.
ASLE Spotlight: New Work in Ecocriticism and Environmental Humanities
Little Seed Cafe in Middlebury. Sponsored by the Vermont Book Shop.
Hillcrest Environmental Center, Middlebury College—Copies of ARRIBADA flew like hot empanadas!
Virtual Open Mic: Readings of Original Creative Writing by Queer & Trans Black Indigenous Women of Color hosted by Mee Ok Icaro
Fiction, Memoir, Poetry: LGBTQ+ Persons in Rural Spaces with Catharine Wright, François Clemmons, Alex Bacchus, and Patricia Powell at AWP Conference.
3/10 Sapphic Story Hour
ARRIBADA is here!
My labor of love. Much in it is deeply mine: family memories, beautiful places, heartbreaks, terror, joy, disappointment, hope. All in its uniquely Mazatlán way, its Mexican way. Much has gone into getting to this point: reams of feedback by my talented, generous mentors at Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College (Sandra Scofield, Jaime Manrique, Randall Keenan, Denis Lehane, Amy Hoffman, Steve Huff, Dorothy Allison), Macondo Writers Workshop (Helena María Viramontes, Reyna Grande, Manuel Muñoz), Under the Volcano (Luisa Valenzuela), Breadloaf Writer’s Conference (Luis Alberto Urrea, Kevin McIlvoy, Ernesto Quiñonez) and the Vermont Studio Center (Alison Hawthorne Deming). Thanks to my fellow writers’ encouragement and insights; for the flash of recognition in the eyes of my students and readers.
Grateful also for the humbling experience of rejection. I got good at recording each of those mean letters in my little log. Don’t ask me how many. But if you are a writer you probably know--unless you are the likes of Luis Alberto Urrea—that the rejection pile is bread and butter for many of us. We are like buskers hoping to lure passersby to stop and bop to our tunes. And each one of those who turn away are pointing at something we could make stronger in our work. So thank you, rejection pile.
Thanks also to Cynren Press for stopping for longer than a moment to read the entire manuscript and for finding it worthwhile. Thanks also to Ariane Van Driel van Wageningen for the gorgeous cover art (and a lot more). And to el Chango Cabral in his dwelling in Mictlán, for the amazing typeface. I am beyond grateful.
So if you love beaches and want to keep them alive; if you believe in the dignity of LGBT people, of indigenous peoples and the poor; if you care for communities and the spaces where they congregate and enjoy; if you harbor loving memories in certain tunes; if you love literature: read ARRIBADA!