Episode 218 with Melissa Rivero, Author of Flores and Miss Paula, Keen Observer of Modern Corporate Life and Nuanced Chronicler of Grief’s Many Permutations

Notes and Links to Melissa Rivero’s Work

 

   

   For Episode 218, Pete welcomes Melissa Rivero, and the two discuss, among other topics, her language and writing life growing up in a bilingual household, writing creatively after writing more practically for her legal career, the startup cultures that informed Flores and Miss Paula, and salient themes from the book like loss, cycles in life, grieving, and la tercera edad.

   Melissa Rivero is the author of The Affairs of the Falcóns, winner of the 2019 New American Voices Award and a 2020 International Latino Book Award. The book was also longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Her most recent novel, Flores and Miss Paula, was published in December 2023. Born in Lima, Peru and raised in Brooklyn, she is a graduate of NYU and Brooklyn Law School, where she was an editor of the Brooklyn Law Review. Melissa still lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Buy Flores and Miss Paula

 

Melissa's Website

 

Interview for Bomb Magazine with Ivelisse Rodriguez

At about 1:40, The two discuss an interesting title of a book of hers

 

At about 2:25, Melissa traces the month or so that Flores and Miss Paula has been out in the world, and feedback she has received

 

At about 4:35, Melissa shares information on an exciting novel project of hers

 

At about 6:40, Pete shouts out an extremely clever phrase in the book

 

At about 7:15, Melissa gives background on her bilingual childhood and reading and writing interests and origins 

 

At about 9:20, Miss Nelson is Missing shout out!

 

At about 11:45, Melissa shouts out some favorite Peruvian writers, past and present, including Claudia Salazar Jiménez 

 

At about 15:00, Melissa responds to Pete’s question about how translation and bilingualism affect her writer’s voice and style

 

At about 17:35, Melissa puts “Write what you know” into her personal context with regard to her latest novel and gives some seeds for the book

 

At about 21:30, Melissa talks about her writing rhythms during the Covid lockdown

 

At about 23:35, Pete asks Melissa about the nomenclature of Flores and Miss Paula and she speaks to the significance of the phrasing

 

At about 25:50, Melissa responds to Pete’s questions about the book’s four seasons’ structure

 

At about 28:00, Pete is highly complimentary of the ways in which Melissa depicts grieving and grief

 

At about 28:35, Melissa reads the book’s opening paragraph, and she and Pete discuss the power of the dynamic beginning

 

At about 29:35, The two discuss the book’s exposition, including descriptions of the mother’s and daughter’s workplaces and the intriguing coworker of Yoli’s (Flores’), Max

 

At about 32:00, Melissa discusses the company’s boss, Eric, and how her time in the startup world informed her writing about that culture

 

At about 34:00, Melissa responds to Pete’s wondering about how Flores’ work habits connect to her emotions, especially with the loss of her father

 

At about 35:50, Melissa gives background on Paula’s friendship with Vicente and their shared history

 

At about 38:40, Melissa and Pete talk about the ways in which Flores exercises her creative muscles

 

At about 39:40, Melissa compares the writing she did in her law career and the more creative work she does these days

 

At about 41:45, Pete asks Melissa about the themes of identity and assimilation come into play with Flores 

 

At about 44:25, The two discuss the “seasons of grieving” in the book

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   Please tune in for Episode 219 with Roxanna Asgarian a Texas-based journalist who writes about courts and the law for The Texas Tribune. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, New York magazine, and Texas Monthly, among other publications. She received the 2022 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award for We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America.

   The episode will air on January 11.