On Fantasy and Meditation

with Lizz Huerta, author of 'The Lost Dreamer'

Apr 26, 2022

#NuevasPaginasconLupita is a space that is both an archive and resource aimed to "spotlight" Hispanic/Latinx/e authors with newly published books. The goal is to connect readers to new and/or old favorite Hispanic/Latinx/e authors and their books! So give this & every post a share to help us reach more readers!

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How does it work?!

Here’s the deal, I came up with a set of casual/random/funny questions to ask each Hispanic/Latinx/e author, I interview. For now, the questions will all be the same but maybe in the future I’ll launch this into more specific questions to the author or maybe I’ll turn this series into a mini-podcast, or maybe……well, you get it! The possibilities are endless.

If you are new here don’t forget to check out all the other amazing interviews! We also have a great line-up of guest authors coming up so make sure you don’t miss an issue by subscribing now!

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Hey Heyyy Book Franz!

Happy *New* Nuevas Páginas Day :) I hope this email finds you well and that you’ve been able to find some time this week to read books! If not, I hope this interview will give you a little inspiration to pick up a book. I know personally, I’ve been struggling to find time to just sit down and read because there’s always something else that needs to be done. In case you need a mantra (as inspired by this interview) or permission to find time to read….here is one you can repeat whenever you get the urge to interrupt any reading time you’ve found: I am allowed to indulge in the joy that reading brings me even when there is so much else I could be doing instead. I deserve this moment.

I hope that helps and if it doesn’t plug in an audiobook while you do what you need to do :)

Without further ado, our special guest author today is….Lizz Huerta!

Could you tell me a bit about where this photo was taken? Is it special to your book in some way?

This pic was taken on my meditation cushion in my living room. I start every day with meditation and also meditate right before I write. There's no way I could have written The Lost Dreamer without this practice. Meditation lets me settle my brain and also connect to deeper, intuitive, even part of self that is way more creative than my un-meditated brain. I have pretty severe ADHD and my brain is forever running away with me; meditation saves my life daily.

Tell me about your book without telling me about your book - share any literary inspirations behind your book! If there are none, the gap you wanted to fill in the literary canon with your book.

I wanted to write a fantasy that felt like ancestral home without taking anything from any living or transitioned cultures. I love fantasy, I always have, and I never saw myself or my ancestors in the stories I loved. I wanted to place a story in a fantastical yet representative place, full of brown people of every shape, with various gifts based in elemental connections to the natural world. I wanted to explore the idea of ancestral gifts within a tradition/lineage and the same gifts outside of a lineage; many of us come from broken lineages and detribalized people because of conquest, colonialism, erasure, and assimilation, yet that desire for connection remains, is inherent.

What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?

Is longing a theme? Because both my protagonists are full of longing; I'm always full of longing. Indir and Saya are seeking to connect in ways that are meaningful and safe. That has always been something I've lived with and toward. And connection to story and trusting the story you're living, even if it doesn't always make sense at the moment. We're each made of interconnected stories and often we can't see how the stories we're living are interwoven with other stories; it isn't until we have some space or time that we can look back and make sense of what may have felt like chaos at the moment. The mantra/prayer I spoke daily while writing this book has become one I still say to myself: I trust the story choosing to emerge through me.

Grab a copy of the book here!

If a book was home, where would your home be?

When I think of home I think of hammocks. I have always loved sleeping in hammocks, the comforting sensation of being held and carried, rocked. If this book is a home, it is the hammock hanging from the Jacaranda tree at my childhood home, I place I go to often. I've been sleeping and dreaming in that hammock since I was an infant and 43 years later I still sleep and dream there whenever I visit my parents. I gave the characters in my book hammocks instead of beds because hammocks are home to me, always.

If your book was a famous musician who would it be?

Is there a famous musician I can compare this book to? I don't know. I listened to a lot of Los Aterciopelados whilst writing The Lost Dreamer but I think the true ache I feel is akin to hearing a song in your head that you know you know but can't place. A familiar melody that has no name but one you know intimately, like an ancestral lullaby, something familiar that comforted you before language or memory.

What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?

More than a comfort food, I hope The Lost Dreamer satisfies thirst, like a long satisfying drink of cool water on a warm day. Thirst is longing and I wanted to satisfy the thirst I had for a story like this. And, the comfort food I ate the entire time I wrote the book was salt & vinegar chips. I'm obsessed.

In what ways has access (or little to no access) to Hispanic/Latinx/e literature defined you as a writer?

The lack of stories representing me and my family, both living and ancestral, informed this book every step of the way. I wrote toward every younger version of myself who needed to see herself in a story, see brown bodies of all shapes and sizes living in a world untouched by colonialism and erasure. To honor little nerd Lizz who wanted magical gifts that felt familiar.

Where can readers keep up with your work?

I have the most basic of websites lizzhuerta.com where readers can find my short fiction and creative nonfiction. On IG and TikTok I'm @lizzhuertawrites and my Twitter is @lizzhuerta.

Don't forget to grab a copy of the book!

A huge thank you to Lizz Huerta for taking the time to chat with me about her book! Please please make sure you purchase a copy (or request your local library carry a copy) of her book #SupportLatinxLit!

Author Bio:

Lizz Huerta is a widely-admired Mexi-Rican short story writer and essayist, published in Lightspeed, The Cut, The Portland Review, The Rumpus, Miami Rail, and more. Her short story "The Wall" is included in the anthology A People's Future of the United States. Huerta has also been a 2018 Bread Loaf Fellow, a five-time VONA Fellow, and the winner of the LUMINA fiction contest, selected by Roxane Gay, who called her writing "a menacing inescapable seduction." She has appeared on CSPAN's BookTV to discuss the erasure of Mexican American Studies in Arizona, and has taught creative writing to homeless youth through San Diego nonprofit So Say We All.

Synopsis for The Lost Dreamer from Bookshop website:

A stunning YA fantasy inspired by ancient Mesoamerica, this gripping debut introduces us to a lineage of seers defiantly resisting the shifting patriarchal state that would see them destroyed--perfect for fans of Tomi Adeyemi and Sabaa Tahir.

Indir is a Dreamer, descended from a long line of seers; able to see beyond reality, she carries the rare gift of Dreaming truth. But when the beloved king dies, his son has no respect for this time-honored tradition. King Alcan wants an opportunity to bring the Dreamers to a permanent end--an opportunity Indir will give him if he discovers the two secrets she is struggling to keep. As violent change shakes Indir's world to its core, she is forced to make an impossible choice: fight for her home or fight to survive.

Saya is a seer, but not a Dreamer--she has never been formally trained. Her mother exploits her daughter's gift, passing it off as her own as they travel from village to village, never staying in one place too long. Almost as if they're running from something. Almost as if they're being hunted. When Saya loses the necklace she's worn since birth, she discovers that seeing isn't her only gift--and begins to suspect that everything she knows about her life has been a carefully-constructed lie. As she comes to distrust the only family she's ever known, Saya will do what she's never done before, go where she's never been, and risk it all in the search of answers.

With a detailed, supernaturally-charged setting and topical themes of patriarchal power and female strength, Lizz Huerta's The Lost Dreamer brings an ancient world to life, mirroring the challenges of our modern one.

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