Kirstin Valdez Quade, celebrated contemporary author, explores the experiences of working-class Latinx New Mexicans in her fiction. Her debut story collection, Night at the Fiestas (2015) won the National Book Foundation “5 under 35” Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for first book in any genre.

 

The New York Times called the stories “legitimate masterpieces” in a “haunting and beautiful debut.” Her first novel, The Five Wounds (2021), recounts the tribulations of the Padillo family of Las Penas, New Mexico:  Amadeo, a recovering alcoholic struggling with poverty and unemployment, Angel, his pregnant 15-year-old daughter, and Yolanda, his ailing mother. The book won the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was named a “Best book of the Year” by NPR, PBS News Hour, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Booklist, and Book Riot.

 

Cosponsored by the English Department’s Creative Writing Program and Young Writers Project, and the major in Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies at UAlbany.

Praise for The Five Wounds 

“With beautifully layered relationships and an honest yet profoundly empathetic picture of a rural community—where the families proudly trace their roots back to the Spanish conquistadors while struggling with poverty and a deadly drug epidemic—this novel is a brilliant meditation on love and redemption.” – Kirkus 

 

“Quade ably delivers a story that is nuanced and authentic without a whiff of melodrama…[A] generous tale of characters who understand the inevitability of fate but try to forge ahead anyway in the hope of breaking free.” – Booklist 

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“Penetrating…The well-developed characters convey palpable emotion as Amadeo’s failures as a father, partner, entrepreneur, and even as Jesus translate into fits of rage and frustration. Quade’s rendering of a singular community is pitch perfect.” – Publishers Weekly 

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“Profoundly affecting…Expertly crafted, this story of family and community introduces us to often needy characters for whom readers come to care deeply. Highly recommended.” – Library Journal 

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“A gorgeously written, epic tale of one Latinx family’s via dolorosa.” – O Magazine

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“[A] fine-grained domestic saga… Quade is masterful with [her characters’] fragility… [A] big-hearted novel.”–Mark Athitakis, USA Today

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“Gorgeously textured… [Quade’s] sinewy sentences and emotional daring astound… Quade glides elegantly across a silken tightrope between comedy and tragedy, twists of fate that buoy her narrative to its resonant conclusion. The Five Wounds is destined to be one of this year’s most celebrated works of fiction.” – Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star Tribune