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Pillars of Creation

A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World

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Pub Date Jul 22 2025 | Archive Date Aug 29 2025

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Description

Where is God amidst the mass graves, poverty, drug trafficking, and corrupt officials on the Texas-Mexico border?

Yoltic Cortez, a college dropout and aspiring writer in his mid-twenties, grapples with this question while living in an impoverished colonia. His bedridden father warns him to prepare spiritually for the challenges ahead by returning to their religious traditions and confronting the “Devil in the desert.”

Encouraged by his mentor, the “Failed Poet,” to pursue a literary career, Yoltic struggles to write his first book. His situation is further complicated when a young Mexican woman, fleeing the violence in northern Mexico, seeks his help.

In this Nietzschean world, a secular realm fraught with fear and loathing, where God has been declared dead, Yoltic’s quest for redemption and wisdom unfolds. Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World by Carlos Nicolás Flores offers a powerful perspective on the crisis at the Mexican-American border through the eyes of a gifted young Tejano.

Where is God amidst the mass graves, poverty, drug trafficking, and corrupt officials on the Texas-Mexico border?

Yoltic Cortez, a college dropout and aspiring writer in his mid-twenties, grapples...


A Note From the Publisher

Carlos Nicolás Flores, a lifelong resident of the Texas- Mexico border, has much lived experience to draw from as a writer. In Our House on Hueco, a young adult novel about growing up in El Paso, and Sex as a Political Condition, a satire of the cultural wars on the Texas-Mexico border, he has written about this region with a keen eye. Equally discerning have been his essays: “Mexican Bandit or the Last Intellectual?: Ilan Stavans’ Notorious Raid on the Chicano Literary Canon” (Academic Studies Press, 2019) and “Raquel Valle-Senties: Portrait of a Poet, Painter, and Playwright” (University of Arizona Press, 2023). He lives in San Ygnacio, Texas.

Carlos Nicolás Flores, a lifelong resident of the Texas- Mexico border, has much lived experience to draw from as a writer. In Our House on Hueco, a young adult novel about growing up in El Paso, and...


Advance Praise

"It is rare to find a book written in the second-person narrative voice, but Carlos Nicolás Flores has accomplished this feat with literary flair. The voice creates an emotional connection with the reader, making them feel like they are the key character in the story. The consistency in the narrative voice, the beauty in the lyrical prose, and the drama are some of the elements that appealed to me. Set against the vivid backdrop of the borderlands—where plazas, churches, and bookstores are spaces of reflection—Pillars of Creation explores themes of cultural duality, existential despair, and the redemptive power of literature. I loved how the author blends Chicano culture with philosophical inquiry, using the border setting to explore the relationship between faith and doubt, tradition and transformation. The result is an engaging literary novel that I couldn’t put down; philosophical in style and exploring existential themes." - Readers' Favorite

"Carlos Nicolás Flores’s Pillars of Creation: A Quest for the Great Name in a Nietzschean World is not your typical coming-of-age novel. It's trippy, raw, sometimes hilarious, and deeply introspective. Imagine drifting through the haze of a South Texas summer with a head full of literary ambition, weed smoke, and existential dread—that’s pretty much what it’s akin to." - Feathered Quill

"It is rare to find a book written in the second-person narrative voice, but Carlos Nicolás Flores has accomplished this feat with literary flair. The voice creates an emotional connection with the...


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Press Release/One-Sheet

Goodreads book page

Social media outreach

Atmosphere Press newsletter feature

Live virtual events

Customized book announcement email

Kirkus/Publishers Weekly reviews

Editorial reviews

...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9798891327023
PRICE $16.99 (USD)
PAGES 296

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