She lives in Miami, where she watches the waters for mermaids and leviathan.Ĭuban-American cooking show star Miriam Quiñones-Smith becomes a seasoned sleuth in Raquel V. Raquel’s soul food is croquetas with a Jupiña chaser.

Raquel is a Sisters in Crime Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color award runner-up.

Her “Let’s put on a show.” ethos has translated into her organizing 200 volunteers for an HIV+ food bank event, co-chairing the SleuthFest writing conference, and directing children’s plays. She earned a Fine Arts degree in Theater Directing from the University of New Mexico. Dedicated to writing with a message of cultural representation as well as lifting marginalized writers, she maintains a blog with interviews with crime writers of color and book reviews of Latinx popular fiction. It’s a lesson that has stayed with her and influences her poetry, middle grades stories, and genre fiction.Ī short story fan all her life, Raquel recently had several of her own stories published, including “A Star Goes Dark” in the 15th Malice Domestic anthology, in which she explores colorism in the Latinx community. With a heavy-accented, handsome Cuban father and a red-headed Southern mother whose smile brightened the room, she saw her family’s joys and troubles mirrored in the popular show, something that contributed to her resilience in the face of societal prejudice.

Her early childhood was not unlike an I Love Lucy rerun. Reyes was raised in oppositional cultures.

Raquel v reyes