My Chicano Heart

New and Collected Stories of Love and Other Transgressions

by Daniel A. Olivas

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Pub Date Aug 06 2024 | Archive Date Aug 31 2024

University of Nevada Press

General Fiction (Adult) | Multicultural Interest | Sci Fi & Fantasy

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Description

My Chicano Heart is a collection of author Daniel A. Olivas’s favorite previously published tales about love, along with five new stories, that explore the complex, mysterious, and occasionally absurd machinations of people who simply want to be appreciated and treasured. Readers will encounter characters who scheme, search, and flail in settings that are sometimes fantastical and other times mundane: a man who literally gives his heart to his wife who keeps it beating safely in a wooden box; a woman who takes a long-planned trip through New Mexico but, mysteriously, without the company of her true love; a lonely man who gains a remarkably compatible roommate who may or may not be real—just to name a few of the memorable and often haunting characters who fill these pages. Often infused with Olivas’s trademark humor, readers will delight in—and commiserate with—the lovestruck characters who populate these richly realized stories.

Each story is drawn from Olivas’s nearly twenty-five years of experience writing fiction deeply steeped in Chicano and Mexican culture. Some of the stories are fanciful and full of magic, while others are more realistic, and still others border on noir. All touch upon that most ephemeral and confounding of human emotions: love in all its wondrous forms.

Advance Praise

“Olivas has done it again. In this collection of stories from University of Nevada Press, he has captured the essence of the Southwestern, supernatural story. Each story leads the reader down a darkening path, yet we go completely of our own volition just to see what he will show us. Nothing is free, yet like his hapless characters, we always agree to the bargain.”

—Kathleen Alcalá, author of Treasures in Heaven: A Novel

“Daniel A. Olivas has written fascinating fantastical scenarios in My Chicano Heart, but always with very recognizable human settings and issues. This collection is a portrait of Latinx/Chicana/o life as it is lived today, and there is true voz here that is jammed with feeling and passion. It’s as if all of Olivas’s character’s souls are embattled.”

—Yxta Maya Murray, author of The World Doesn’t Work That Way, but It Could: Stories

“Olivas has done it again. In this collection of stories from University of Nevada Press, he has captured the essence of the Southwestern, supernatural story. Each story leads the reader down a...

Marketing Plan

• Well-crafted short stories by an acclaimed writer

• Fiction heavily steeped in Latinx/Mexican American culture

• Well-drawn characters of all economic backgrounds

• Well-drawn straight and LGBTQ characters

• Well-drawn characters of all ages

• Well-crafted short stories by an acclaimed writer

• Fiction heavily steeped in Latinx/Mexican American culture

• Well-drawn characters of all economic backgrounds

• Well-drawn straight and LGBTQ...

Available Editions

EDITION	Other Format
ISBN	9781647791346
PRICE	$22.00 (USD)
PAGES	216

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Featured Reviews

Reviewer 1395809

Here's the deal: I was just browsing the selection while waiting for my roommate to wake up so we can go have lunch, when I spotted a beautiful cover. I sent a request, expecting nothing. But I got an email saying that I was approved within a few minutes. With my roommate still asleep, I opened the book, and started reading the first story. I immediately thought I would not like it. But that was just the first paragraph.

Spoilers ahead: The way the main character requested his heart back intrigued me. So I kept going. The way the process of him taking out his heart and giving it, was even better. Safe to say, I kept going and kept liking it more and more.

The second story broke my heart. The third revealed that twist in the end in the best possible way! The author sucked me into these stories, I couldn't stop reading until I finished it.

The author pays attention to very small details. It makes the story feel alive. All the characters are wonderful, and the pages are dyed with their personality in only a few lines. That's expertise for you! And the humor was top-notch!

I will definitely check out more works from this author!

A huge thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced digital copy!

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Breanna R, Reviewer

Beautifully written. Heart wrenching and thoughtful. You can feel every emotion radiating off of this novel, like it’s been dipped in the authors blood and left to dry.