If restraint in Latino queer writing is a fine art, Manuel Muñoz is its preeminent new craftsman. It’s what he doesn’t show you that’s often most heartbreaking in the lives of the men and women who dwell within the 10 stories of his second collection. Shelved between Walter Mosley and Alice Munro, The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue reads like a novel with lives intersecting on the various streets of small-town California: Gold Street, Olive Avenue, and Avocado Lake. He gives his characters unapologetically Latin names: Joaquín, Roberto, Perla, Guadalupe, Sebastián, Concepción, Ignacio, and Claudio. And they’re not meant to be mispronounced
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FULL DISCLOSURE: Not only is Manuel Muñoz a good friend of mine, he’s a brilliant writer. We traded emails with Muñoz recently. He has a new collection of short stories out, The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue. Before going off to Harvard and Cornell, Muñoz grew up in a small blue-collar town you’ve never heard of in southern California. I say this because his work often chronicles the complex four-way intersection of Chicano and Latino and Literary and Gay — and because he has been both shunned and lauded for tackling those unseemly hush-hush subjects. As we expected, Muñoz’s responses are both engaging and thoughtful — if not thorough. We discuss what it means to be a gay writer anymore — or a Latino writer — or a Chicano writer who happens to be gay — or any and none of the above. – ANTONIO CERNA
In the compact world of literary/homo/Chicano/a fiction, Manuel Muñoz is having a moment. The Guardian recently listed nominees for the Frank O’Connor Award and Muñoz was nominated among prominent authors like Miranda July and Alice Munro. Manuel Muñoz’s latest short story collection — 10 interlinked stories set in a Mexican-American neighborhood in California — draws on his own upbringing. He’s a beautiful writer. So, we weren’t surprised to learn today that both the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune published Manuel’s handsomely crafted and wickedly observant account of Spanish names and name-calling. Recently interviewed by Daniel Olivas for La Bloga and garnering comparisons to superstar writers Junot Díaz and Daniel Alcaron, let’s hope Manuel will agree to an interview with Homo-Neurotic before Good Morning America comes calling. To read more about Manuel Munoz visit manuel-munoz.com.