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© Greg Waltenberg

© Greg Waltenberg

Annell López is a Dominican immigrant. She is the author of the short story collection I’ll Give You a Reason, winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize. A 2022 Peter Taylor fellow, she has received support from Tin House and the Kenyon Review Workshops, and her work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Michigan Quarterly Review, Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. López is an Assistant Fiction Editor for New Orleans Review and received her MFA at the University of New Orleans.

 


Schedule

11:15 am to 12:15 pm

State Capitol, Senate Committee Room A

Relationships and Realizations: Short Stories

with Annell López, Christopher Lowe, Julia Ridley Smith, and moderator A.E. Rooks

 

12:30 pm to 1:15 pm

Cavalier House Books Tent

Book Signing


I'll Give You a Reason: Stories

The vibrant stories in I’ll Give You a Reason explore race, identity, connection, and belonging in the Ironbound, an immigrant neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. A young widow goes on her first date since her husband’s death and finds herself hunting a bear in the woods with a near stranger. An unhappy wife compares her mother’s love spells and rituals to her own efforts to repair her strained marriage. A self-conscious college student discovers a porn star who shares her name and becomes obsessed with her doppelgänger’s freedom and comfort with her own body.

Annell López’s indelible characters tread the waters of political unrest, sexuality, religion, body image, Blackness, colorism, and gentrification—searching for their identities and a sliver of joy and intimacy. Through each story, a nuanced portrait of the “American Dream” emerges, uplifting the voices of those on its margins.