Angie Cruz “How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water”
Inspired Writers Series presented by the MFA Program
Throughout her career, Angie Cruz has written brilliantly voiced characters negotiating cultural and economic displacement, where political questions about immigration and gentrification intersect with the intimate struggles of a human soul. A cover review in the New York Times Book Review called most recent novel, How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water (2022), “taut and poignant,” with “magnetic storytelling.” It was later selected as a New York Times Notable Book of 2022 and longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her novel Dominicana was the inaugural book pick for GMA book club and shortlisted for The Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction, and won the ALA/YALSA Alex Award in fiction.
She will be in conversation with National Book Award-winning author and Fairfield Professor Phil Klay.
Angie Cruz is a novelist and editor. Her most recent novel How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water (2022) is a finalist for the 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, shortlisted for The Aspen Words Literary Prize, winner of the Gold Medal, Latino Book Award/The Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Book Award, longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Literary Prize and chosen for The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2022 and The Washington Post 50 Notable Works of Fiction. Her novel, Dominicana was the inaugural book pick for GMA book club and shortlisted for The Women’s Prize, longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction, a RUSA Notable book and the winner of the ALA/YALSA Alex Award in fiction. It was named most anticipated/ best book in 2019 by Time, Newsweek, People, Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Esquire. Cruz is the author of two other novels, Soledad and Let It Rain Coffee and the recipient of numerous fellowships and residencies including the Lighthouse Fellowship, Siena Art Institute, and the Macdowell Arts Colony. She’s published shorter works in The Paris Review, VQR, Callaloo, Gulf Coast and other journals. She's the founder and editor-in-chief of the award-winning literary journal, Aster(ix) and is currently an Associate Professor at University of Pittsburgh. She divides her time between Pittsburgh, New York and Turin.