Claire Jiménez is a Puerto Rican writer who grew up in Brooklyn and Staten Island. She is the author of the short story collection STATEN ISLAND STORIES, which received the 2019 Hornblower Award for a first book from the New York Society Library and was named a finalist for the International Latino Book Awards, a New York Public Library Favorite Book about New York, and Best Latino Book of 2019 by NBC News.

Jiménez received her MFA from Vanderbilt University and her PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 2020, she cofounded the Puerto Rican Literature Project, a digital archive. Currently she is an Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina.

Her fiction, essays and reviews have appeared in Remezcla, AfroHispanic Review, PANK, The Rumpus and Eater, among other publications. WHAT HAPPENED TO RUTHY RAMIREZ is her debut novel.

Books by Claire Jiménez

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez

by Claire Jiménez - Fiction, Women's Fiction

When 13-year-old Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left her family scarred and scrambling. One night, 12 years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in “Catfight,” a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This woman's hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left eye is instantly recognizable. Could it be Ruthy after all this time? Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to where the show is filmed. When their mother Dolores catches wind of their scheme, she insists on joining, along with her best friend, Irene. What follows is a family road trip and reckoning that will force the Ramirez women to finally face the past and look toward a future --- with or without Ruthy in it.