Episode 638-With Luis Jaramillo

The Functional Nerds Podcast

This week, Patrick and Tracy welcome Luis Jaramillo, author of The Witches of El Paso.

About The Witches of El Paso: 1943, El Paso, Texas: teenager Nena spends her days caring for the small children of her older sisters, while longing for a life of freedom and adventure. The premonitions and fainting spells she has endured since childhood are getting worse, and Nena worries she’ll end up like the scary old curandera down the street. Nena prays for help, and when the mysterious Sister Benedicta arrives late one night, Nena follows her across the borders of space and time. In colonial Mexico, Nena grows into her power, finding love and learning that magic always comes with a price.

In the present day, Nena’s grandniece, Marta, balances a struggling legal aid practice with motherhood and the care of the now ninety-three-year-old Nena. When Marta agrees to help search for a daughter Nena left in the past, the two forge a fierce connection. Marta’s own supernatural powers emerge, awakening her to new possibilities that threaten the life she has constructed.

About Luis Jaramillo: Luis Jaramillo is the author of The Doctor’s Wife, winner of the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Contest, an Oprah Book of the Week, and one of NPR’s Best Books of 2012. His novel The Witches of El Paso (Atria/Simon & Schuster) will be published in the fall of 2024. Luis’s fiction and nonfiction has appeared in Tin House, Lit Hub, Poets & Writers Magazine, BOMB Magazine and the Chattahoochee Review, among other publications. He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at The New School. He received an undergraduate degree from Stanford and an MFA from The New School.

This week’s picks:

• Luis #1: Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
• Luis #2: The Farming Game (Board Game)
• Tracy: Folger Shakespeare Audio Editions
• Patrick: INIS (Board Game)

Links:

• Luis Jaramillo on Instagram
• Tracy Townsend on the network formerly known as Twitter
• Patrick Hester on Instagram
• The Functional Nerds Patreon Page

© 2024 Patrick Hester

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