The Air Beneath Her Feet, my unpublished novel, is the 2025 PEN/America Bare Life Review Grant Winner.  Stories from the novel have won several awards and have appeared in the United States, United Kingdom, Austria and Canada.

This is what the judges from Pen/America had to say about the novel:

The Air Beneath Her Feet is a powerful exploration of displacement, survival, and the precarious reality of living in exile. Though taking place during the first Trump presidency, its themes remain profoundly relevant today, capturing the fear, uncertainty, and resilience of immigrants navigating hostile systems. With prose that is deceptively simple yet deeply deliberate, the piece carries immense emotional weight, drawing the reader into the ongoing struggles of those forced to leave home. It is a story that pulses with urgency, refusing to be merely an intellectual or artistic exercise – it bears witness to the prolonged survival of the displaced. The work’s commitment to language as a cultural anchor is particularly striking, as the writer insists on making it available not only in English but also in Spanish, recognizing the over eight million Venezuelans living in the U.S., Europe, and South America. This decision speaks to the power of language as both a claim to identity and an act of resistance against erasure. The piece’s clarity of purpose, its ability to articulate both the hope and despair of being caught between catastrophe and catastrophe. More than just a depiction of struggle, The Air Beneath Her Feet insists on being heard, offering a raw and unflinching look at the realities of displacement in a world where true safety remains elusive.

I am still looking for a gutsy agent and a publisher (hint, hint, hint). Check the first chapter of the novel “Escuderos” first published in River Styx.  Read the name sake chapter, “The Air Beneath Her Feet” first published in the Write Launch.