Thomas Ray Garcia's debut short story collection reimagines the Texas-Mexico border as a site of belonging and becoming. These 11 stories feature characters facing the realities of living alongside a river running through their countries, communities, and cultures.
Along the Rio Grande, river crossings lead to cross country runs and astral projections. A pregnant teenager learns about motherhood from a curandera. A scholarship boy grapples with his fronterizo identity. The sister of a border patrol agent lives in fear of deportation. A child looks into the eye of a drone and sees his family anew.
The River Runs: Stories
won the Américo Paredes Literary Arts Prize for Fiction sponsored by FlowerSong Press from McAllen, Texas and Prickly Pear Publishing from Santa Fe, New Mexico.