V. Ruiz is a Lesbian Xicana writer and editor. When they aren’t writing, they are feverishly studying astrology, exploring Queer history, gaming, or cuddling with their cheese-loving dog and underworld-roaming gato. Their debut book of poetry, In Stories We Thunder was published by Sundress Publications.
“I love the voice of V. Ruiz in these poems that believe in lyric abandon, believe in making their own mythology and their own singing out of our shared days, believe that singing is possible still in this time of misfortune and crisis, believe that lineages ring with truth and truth speaks to us via senses. Poet is a professor of five senses Lorca taught us, and V. Ruiz knows this and is ‘not afraid of what lays in darkness.’ This is a true poet, friends, one who knows spells exist and knows that ‘pounding / becomes an echo we find our voices / in the sounds that return as ghosts.’ Terrific, memorable, necessary debut.”
—Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing in Odessa
“In their luminous debut, In Stories We Thunder, V. Ruiz builds new myths that feature lessons on both the timeless and the ephemeral—the moon and the jukebox. The ocean and Pedro Pascal. Reading this collection is like looking into a kaleidoscope—there are entire galaxies in this small space, and they change with each new glimpse. ‘We will learn / to find new worlds in the words / we pass on—’ Ruiz writes, ‘in the women we become.’”
—Paige Lewis, author of Space Struck
“A powerful blend of the mythic and authentic, In Stories We Thunder is a book of poems that is made of all four elements. These visionary poems sing of both history and the present moment, an electrifying debut.”
—Ada Limón, author of The Hurting Kind
Featuring stories by award-winning poets like Richard Siken, Rachel McKibbens, and Brionne Janae; acclaimed fiction writers like Temim Fruchter, Corinne Manning, and Max Delsohn; and popular thinkers like Jessica P. Pryde, Someplace Generous presents voices largely new to the genre of romance, each bringing a fresh take on what it means to tell a love story.
In these pages, desire is centered and explored through queer, trans, Black, AAPI, Latinx, Jewish, disabled, and neurodivergent lenses, and the ages of authors and characters span generations. The brilliant authors herein have spun lush, poetic tales featuring characters and perspectives historically excluded from romance narratives. Through a variety of styles, lengths, and subgenres—ranging from flash-fiction to short stories, speculative to satire to romcom—there is something here for every kind of reader.
Two Modern Orthodox Jewish women cross a magical threshold on the holiday of Shavuot. A Chinese American grandmother in a nursing home plays matchmaker, just in time for the Lunar New Year. A nonbinary sexworker with psychic abilities helps an older woman connect with her long-lost lover. Two disabled young adults find new levels of intimacy as they work to overcome shame. An enslaved couple jumps the broom and can see the future, which is freedom.
The lovers in Someplace Generous—whether they are sapphic vampires or undercover super-heroes, teenagers, or middle-aged mamas—choose each other, and along the way, they choose themselves, too.
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