Henríquez, Cristina 1977-

PERSONAL:

Born 1977; married. Education: Northwestern University, graduated; University of Iowa, Iowa Writers' Workshop, graduated.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Dallas, TX. E-mail—cristina@ cristinahenriquez.com.

CAREER:

Writer. Also works for Dallas public television and radio stations.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Cited as one of "Fiction's New Luminaries," Virginia Quarterly Review; Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award.

WRITINGS:

Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories, Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor of short stories to periodicals, including New Yorker, Glimmer Train, TriQuarterly, and AGNI.

SIDELIGHTS:

In her fiction, according to critics, Cristina Henríquez evokes the spirit of Panama. Her collection Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories comprises a series of stories that describe Panamanian characters in the process of coping with issues of contemporary life. "These eight stories and a novella, set in modern-day Panama," declared Betsy Aoki in the Seattle Times, "take the American reader into emotional landscapes of grief, relationship discovery and flashes of peace they will find familiar, even though the vivid descriptions of food, smells and Spanish words take them far from the United States." The author, stated a contributor to Kirkus Reviews, creates "stories redolent of innocent attachment tempered by obdurate experience—compassionate, tender and fresh." "Henríquez," related Booklist contributor Donna Seaman, "creates a vision of Panama that is at once sweepingly realistic and subtly hallucinogenic." "This is powerful writing," Aoki concluded, "that creates astonishing juxtapositions."

"I'm half-Panamanian," Henríquez explained in an interview published on the Earth Goat blog. "My father is from Panama.… Because of that, I feel like I have a unique perspective on life in Panama. I'm still an outsider in many ways, definitely, but I've been privy to an insider's perspective in other ways. I actually think that distance has something to do with why writing about Panama works for me. There's enough space between me and Panama for my imagination to take flight. I have some breathing room."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 2006, Donna Seaman, review of Come Together, Fall Apart: A Novella and Stories, p. 27.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2006, review of Come Together, Fall Apart, p. 253.

Library Journal, April 15, 2006, Sofia A. Tangalos, review of Come Together, Fall Apart, p. 69.

Publishers Weekly, December 12, 2005, review of Come Together, Fall Apart, p. 35.

Seattle Times, April 28, 2006, Betsy Aoki, "Come Together, Fall Apart: Stories from Panama, a Journey of Sight, Smell."

Texas Monthly, April, 2006, Mike Shea, review of Come Together, Fall Apart, p. 56.

ONLINE

Cristina Henríquez Home Page, http://www.cristinahenriquez.com (November 9, 2006).

Earth Goat Web log,http://earthgoat.blogspot.com/ (November 9, 2006), "Cristina Henríquez Interview: Come Together, Fall Apart."

Virginia Quarterly Review Online, http://www.vqronline.org/ (November 9, 2006), brief biography of Cristina Henríquez.