Skip to main content

Xavier Navarro Aquino

Biography

Xavier Navarro Aquino

Xavier Navarro Aquino was born and raised in Puerto Rico. His fiction has appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and Guernica. His poetry has appeared in the Caribbean Writer and is anthologized in THICKER THAN WATER: New Writing from the Caribbean. He has been awarded scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a Tennessee Williams scholarship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and a MacDowell Fellowship. He holds an M.A. in English Caribbean Studies from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is currently an ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow at Dartmouth College.

Xavier Navarro Aquino

Books by Xavier Navarro Aquino

Velorio
by Xavier Navarro Aquino - Fiction

Camila is haunted by the death of her sister, Marisol, who was caught by a mudslide during the huracán. Unable to part with Marisol, Camila carries her through town, past the churchyard and, eventually, to the supposed utopia of Memoria. Urayoán, the idealistic yet troubled cult leader of Memoria, has a vision for this new society, one that in his eyes is peaceful and democratic. The paradise he preaches lures in the young, including Bayfish, a boy on the cusp of manhood, and Morivivi, a woman whose outward toughness belies an inner tenderness for her friends. But as the different members of Memoria navigate Urayoán’s fiery rise, they will need to confront his violent authoritarian impulses in order to find a way to reclaim their home.