When we spoke with Rubén Degollado, author of the YA novel Throw, a Texas Institute of Letters Award-winner in 2020, and The Family Izquierdo, a multi-generational family saga set on the U.S.-Mexico Border that was published in September 2022, he was home in South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, taking advantage of the holiday break from his work as a teacher, to spend time writing his third book. He said having a space of his own—"with a door”—dedicated to writing, has been the one non-negotiable he’s kept throughout his life.
Rubén Degollado: I’ve lived in Florida, Oregon, Texas. One, two, three, four different houses. I’ve been married 25 years. Our first place was an apartment. Then a little trailer. Now we’re a family, my wife and three kids. Used to look at the separate space as dedicated to a hobby. I don’t know when it transitioned from just seeing writing as a hobby.
Kweli: Could you tell me more about that leap you had to make from hobbyist to professional writer. Was it a craft issue?
RD: It was more of a leap in mindset. It was like, “Oh he writes little stories—qué bonito.” But when people start reading and dissecting and commenting on those stories, you realize that you really have something to say.
Kweli: You’ve said that the first chapter of what would become the novel The Family Izquierdo was published in Hayden’s Ferry Review in 1998. How did you keep going all those years between that first published piece and when the book was eventually published in 2022?
RD: I wrote a story every couple of years. They got published in Gulf Coast, Image Journal. Not everything got published. I got rejections. It takes a toll on you as a creative.
And there were ten to twelve years when I went silent. I focused on my career as a teacher and raising a family. I even stopped my subscription to Poets & Writers magazine because I’d see all of the announcements for contests and submission deadlines and it was discouraging.
Kweli: How did you get out of that?
RD: I stopped reading literary fiction and started reading genre fiction just to enjoy reading again. I reached out to Greg Wolfe [he’d previously published two Izquierdo stories in Image Journal] and when I sent him the manuscript for Throw he asked “Is this still available.” It was hearing that belief when my creativity came back.
Kweli: You mentioned in an online Instagram post how Kweli’s International Literary Festival really helped you find community. Can you tell us more about that?
RD: I’d been writing since before we had easy access to finding other writers. I wasn’t someone who got an MFA. I got my Masters in education administration. I didn’t start meeting other writers until things went online. And when the Kweli International Festival came around I made a conscious effort to attend the readings. Even though I would just show up as a little icon on the screen, it was important to be there and feel a part of that. Authors need that community—whether that community is large or small—you need someone in your corner. It would’ve made a difference when I struggled in the dark, no one checking up on me. If I’d had community maybe these books would’ve come out sooner. Or maybe there would’ve been other books I could’ve written.
Kweli: Your first and second books have recurring characters. Will you be bringing some of them back in the next book?
RD: I call it the DFU—the Degollado Fictional Universe—my version of Marvel. From my first book, Throw, I’ll be bringing together the characters, Karina, or La Llorona, and Maggie “Magic Fingers,” from the second book The Family Izquierdo. These are women with history trying to live their lives.
Kweli: Maggie was a standout character in The Family Izquierdo. She was very real and memorable. Can you tell us more about the new book?
RD: Maggie is easy to write. I can get into her voice. She’s very exagerada and full of life. Readers love her. Right now I’m working on the outline and a couple chapters. We’ll see.
(*This interview has been edited and condensed.)
