Come out to Interabang Books on Wednesday August 21st to see Rebecca Balcarcel read from her debut novel, The Other Half of Happy. I’ll be discussing the book with the DFW-based author herself and it’s sure to be a fun night.

Sneak Peak of The Other Half of Happy:

Twelve-year-old Quijana likes to say that she used to be Pangaea: unsplit. Not half white or half Latina. But that was before her Guatemalan cousins moved to town ... Before her dad seemed ashamed that she isn’t more in touch with her Latinx heritage ... Before her parents planned a family trip to Guatemala, where she’ll feel like a failure from first tortilla to last. 

With the help of two new friends and kid-powered ingenuity, Quijana makes a plan to ditch the trip. After all, she’s never been great at Spanish. She never asked to be named after Don Quixote, Spain’s most famous loser. Will she find happiness by staying half?

Author Rebecca Balcárcel took her MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars and received their Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in journals such as Third Coast and North American Review. Pecan Grove Press of St. Mary’s University published her book of poems, Palabras in Each Fist. She loves popcorn, her kitty, and teaching her students at Tarrant County College as Associate Professor of English. THE OTHER HALF OF HAPPY is her debut novel.