We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alex Temblador a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alex , so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?
A few years ago, I was invited to be a featured author at a literary fundraiser at a prestigious university. As one of the featured authors, my books were available for purchase and I was expected to mingle with the donors, most of whom were white. Quickly, I realized that I wasn’t the only Latine person at the event — however, I was the only Latine person who had not been hired as part of the catering service. That realization hit home quickly, when the caterers took notice of me and approached me more often than other guests to offer me more drinks or hors d’oeuvres, sometimes by speaking in Spanish. One woman even came over to speak to me about my books and was so excited to learn that the book highlighted Mexican and Mexican-American cultural practices.
This experience has stuck with me for a long time, as it painted a clear picture of how there are very few people who look like me who have become authors, much less traditionally-published award-winning authors. I saw the surprise in the faces of the other Latine people at the event. They did not expect to see their culture represented through one of the featured authors that night — because for so long, our culture has not been recognized of being worthy of being represented or highlighted in the creative arts.
While there are more and more Mixed and Latine writers in the writing scene than ever before, that does not mean that it has been easy for any of us to find success in this field. Bias, discrimination, and racism, unconscious or otherwise, is something that most of us are intimately aware of, and that’s because those in the writing and publishing industry who hold positions of power — editors, agents, publishing executives, etc. — are predominantly white and often have a biased view of which stories are worth telling. Because of that, I’ve had to fight for stories that represent my heritage and identity to be told.
To be a successful Mixed Latine author and writer, I felt it necessary to learn about the various writing and publishing industries that I engage in. Knowing how they work, from the bottom to the top, gave me some power to navigate such spaces that were not created for me. Not only that, but it was important for me to find my own voice and stand up for myself in situations where others might expect me to give in or roll over to pressure. Perhaps most importantly, I sought out other Mixed, Latine, and writers of color as friends and allies. It was vital to make connections with other writers who looked like me who had similar experiences as I had. While we may not live in the same city or even state, by sharing advice, insights, and providing help in various ways, we are able to help each other be more successful and prove that there should be more people who look like us in the writing room.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am an award-winning Mixed Latine author of three books. My first two novels are called Half Outlaw and Secrets of the Casa Rosada. While Secrets of the Casa Rosada is a young-adult novel that won numerous awards, Half Outlaw is my debut adult novel. Both novels are magical realism stories that highlight both Latine and Mixed cultures and feature strong protagonists dealing with messy families.
I am excited for my upcoming book that will publish with St. Martin’s Essentials in August 2024. Writing an Identity Not Your Own: A Guide for Creative Writers is my first non-fiction book that is designed as a writing craft guide for people interested in learning how to write characters with identities, especially historically marginalized identities, that are not their own. For instance, writers will learn what it takes to write characters with other races, sexual orientations, gender identities, nationalities, and disabilities with respect and care. It’s an essential guide for creative writers of all backgrounds and will hopefully usher in a new era of writers and publishers that understand the importance of doing it right.
My creative writing has also appeared in anthologies like Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America and Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology, as well as literary journals like Colorado Review, PALABRITAS, D Magazine, Cigale Literary Magazine, and Scissortale Review. I’m also the founder and moderator of LitTalk at Whose Books, a quarterly panel series for DFW authors. In my career as an author, I often provide presentations or creative writing classes through writing programs or organizations, at universities and high schools, at festivals or conferences, and at bookstores around the country.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think the best quality that I ever developed was the ability to not take things too personally. As a writer, I have received so many rejection letters, and if I wasn’t able to let those rejections go, it would have been very hard for me to continue on in my journey to being a published author. Early on, I adjusted my perspective around the idea of rejection and saw it more as a rite-of-passage that all writers have on their journey to publication. If you can see it that way, hopefully, it can encourage you to continue submitting your work in the hopes of sharing it with the world.
I don’t think any writer can be successful without maintaining their own personal education in writing and storytelling. This involves reading diverse stories from authors of different identities or reading genres that you don’t necessarily gravitate to. Recently, I’ve started to explore poetry and I’m finding that it’s impacting my writing and creativity in a number of positive ways.
A few years ago, I probably wouldn’t have said that knowing how to write other identities would be a path toward writing success, but I’m slowly starting to see how teaching myself about that process has improved my writing and storytelling abilities. I think the future of writing and publishing is firmly set in us telling the stories of other identities with care and respect. If you want a future in this industry, it’s imperative that you learn all you can about bias and how it might appear in your own writing.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
For a long time, I think I relied on my strengths as a magical realism, literary fiction novelist and didn’t see any worth in exploring other genres or creative writing endeavors. Yes, I became very knowledgeable in my genre and field and excelled in the fact that I published two novels in those genres that won awards. However, in the last few years, I realized that I was actually burning out as a writer and the well from which my creative ideas came from was drying up. By not reading different genres or experimenting with form or learning about poetry, I was limiting my creativity as a writer. In the past year, I’ve been focusing on “play” when it comes to my writing career. By that, I mean I am writing poetry — something I’ve never done. I’m also reading other genres that I haven’t read since I was a kid like fantasy and sci-fi and reading up on subjects that I’ve never had any interest in like physics. These new practices have generated new ideas and encouraged me to play with form in my creative writing projects. I’m excited to see how it impacts my author career in the long run.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alextemblador.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alex_temblador/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1360921567
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alextemblador
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/alex_temblador
- Other: https://www.writinganidentitynotyourown.com/
Image Credits
Shelbie Monkres (for the headshots, or the photos that only feature me in them with my books)
