Richard Yañez
Richard Yañez was born and raised on the U.S.-México Border. He is the author of EL PASO DEL NORTE: STORIES ON THE BORDER. His novel, CROSS OVER WATER, was published in spring 2011, also by the University of Nevada Press. His work has appeared in LITERARY EL PASO, HECHO EN TEJAS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF TEXAS MEXICAN LITERATURE, and U.S. LATINO LITERATURE TODAY. A graduate of New Mexico State University and Arizona State University, he is an associate professor of English at El Paso Community College, where he also organizes community literary events. Currently, he is working on an autoethnography, "Beyond Italics: The Work and Witness of a Chicano Writer." He lives in his hometown with his wife, the Chicana writer Carolina Monsiváis, and their son, Pablo.
“It wasn’t permanent like the limestone cross that flagged the mountain peak in the horizon, so he made sure to write it down. After making the sign of the cross, a deep hunger pulled his weight to the bottom of La Loma.”
“Well, someone told someone and someone told someone else, you know how it is, that if you filled jugs with water and placed them around the edges of your lawn that you’d be protected. Ghost and witches can’t cross over water, it turns out.”
“Over the years, Raul remembered many events like if they were TV shows, especially at night, like when he and Alberto cruised around town. The open windows, the wide space of the desert, allowed room for his thoughts to emerge. Some memories played over and over again, like the re-runs he watched during the summer. And depending on the events, he didn’t mind having to sit through them. At least his memories weren’t interrupted with commercials. Click . . . Click . . . Click . . .”
“Ruly learned how to drown the summer his family left Lomaland for good.”