Gabino Iglesias

Gabino Iglesias grew up in Puerto Rico, moved to the mainland in 2008 and began writing fiction in English, a language he did not start speaking until he was in sixth or seventh grade. He calls what he does barrio noir: crime writing that opens onto horror and keeps its eye on the border with Mexico. The Devil Takes You Home, published by Mulholland Books in 2022, follows Mario, a Texan whose small daughter is diagnosed with leukemia just as he loses his job and health cover; he accepts contract work from a dealer to pay for her treatment, then joins two others in a plan to take a cartel's money. Long stretches of it run in Spanish, untranslated. The novel won the Bram Stoker Award for best novel and the Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. Gutmouth, Zero Saints and Coyote Songs came before it, and House of Bone and Rain followed in 2024. Iglesias took a doctorate in journalism in Austin, still lives in the city and teaches in the low-residency MFA that UC Riverside runs at Palm Desert.