In the movies she watched, in the books she read growing up, author Kali Fajardo-Anstine didn’t see characters that looked like her, that reflected her life experiences. In her new collection of short stories, “Sabrina and Corina,” Fajardo-Anstine addresses that dearth of representation. Readers meet multifaceted Latinas of Indigenous descent. They are flawed, conflicted, inspiring and funny. They are Latinas living in the West and readers see the land and history through their eyes.
Just like the conflicts some of her characters face, Fajardo-Anstine’s path to publishing this book was tumultuous. She was a lousy student. Her high school teachers told her to give up. And so she did. But that wasn’t the end. Fajardo-Anstine went on to earn an MFA from University of Wyoming and her stories have appeared in literary magazines across the country. Her new book not only represents marginalized voices but also the oftentimes painful path of rejection that writers traverse before they find their voice and their audience.
On Saturday, Fajardo-Anstine teaches a writer’s workshop at Center for the Arts and appears at a book signing and reading at Jackson Hole Book Trader. Ahead of those events, she discussed her life, her family and her new book.
