Luis Alberto Urrea

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his landmark work of nonfiction The Devil’s Highway, now in its thirty-fourth paperback printing, Luis Alberto Urrea (he/him) is the author of numerous other works of nonfiction, poetry, and fiction, including the national bestsellers The Hummingbird’s Daughter and The House of Broken Angels, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, among many other honors, he lives outside Chicago and teaches at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Taking as inspiration his mother’s own Red Cross service, Luis Alberto Urrea has delivered an overlooked story of women’s heroism in World War II. With its affecting and uplifting portrait of friendship and valor in harrowing circumstances, Good Night, Irene powerfully demonstrates yet again that Urrea’s “gifts as a storyteller are prodigious” (NPR).

Lately lots of poetry and I just finished The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias and, to be honest, I think the devil may now be coming after me … if you are gonna read it, make sure to take your vitamins first! What I’ve been eager to get to are the new Cormac McCarthy books. The beautiful matching set mocks me from my nightstand.

My favorite place to read is in bed, late into the night with my wife falling asleep beside me. No pictures.

The Jungle Books, Tom Sawyer and let’s be honest – Andre Norton’s Storm Over Warlock, the story of a young man on an unnamed planet with a pet hawk and a psychic wolverine who wages a one-man war against the invading giant ant man. A classic. I read this book over and over, and reader, I must confess: I was that boy.

I really enjoy the cheesiest reality shows. You know, the ones where strangers are coerced into marriage at first sight? Those kind of shows. At least to my wife’s relief, I am past the phase in which I would tell you I never miss professional wrestling. But we have many favorites. Succession, of course. And we adored Bad Sisters. Hooked on The Last of Us and am savoring Transatlantic. I do drive the rest of the family out of the room when I start watching Gold Rush and imagine myself as a multimillionaire gold miner with the world’s biggest tractor.

I am greatly looking forward to reading David Gessner’s new book A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World (out in June). An advance reader’s copy of Miriam Gurba’s newest, Creep, is on the top of my TBR pile. And as soon as I see the new James Lee Burke, I will stop everything I am doing and read that.

I would like to talk to animals.