Sudden Fiction Latino anthology selects Veiga

Marisella Veiga, who teaches English at Flagler College, recently had her short story, “Fresh Fruit,” selected for publication in the prestigious anthology, “Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America.”

The book, published by W.W. Norton & Company, will be available this month.

“Fresh Fruit” tells the story of an older Puerto Rican woman who reflects on her own life and that of a younger woman across the street. The older woman reflects on the differences in the two women’s lives.

With her latest publication, Veiga is featured among some of the top names of Latin American and U.S. Hispanic writers such as Isabel Allende, Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz, to name a few.

“When I was in college and graduate school, I studied the writers who are included in this anthology,” Veiga said. “I feel so honored to be listed among these writers.”

Veiga was born in Havana, Cuba, and went into exile with her family in the United States in 1960. “I am one of many people who is fortunate enough to live with two languages and with two cultures,” she said.

Emily Bursch, a Flagler College senior and one of Veiga’s students, said she is proud of Veiga’s accomplishments.

“It really benefits the students to know that they are learning from a professor who is a working writer,” she said. “She [Veiga] has been blessed with such an amazing gift, and she is an inspiration to all of her students.”

Darien Andreu, associate professor and interim chair of the English department at Flagler, said Flagler students are fortunate to work with Veiga.

“With the selection of her story for ’Sudden Fiction Latino,’ Marisella’s work is now anthologized among canonical works we teach in our literature classes – from Nobel Prize winners such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez to some of the hottest Latin American writers such as Junot Diaz and Sandra Cisneros.”

Veiga is a syndicated columnist for the Hispanic Link News Service in Washington, D.C. Some of her columns are on a Spoken Word CD called “Square Watermelons: Ten Essays on Living with Two Cultures.”

Her work appears in The Washington Post, Ploughshares and Iguana Dreams. She teaches “The Art of Non-Fiction” at Flagler College.