In conversation with Jean Kwok and Thrity Umrigar, moderated by Carol Fitzgerald.
2:30 – 3:20 at Church of the Redeemer
About the author
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. She received her MFA from Vanderbilt University and her PhD in English with a concentration in ethnic studies and digital humanities from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 2020, she co-founded 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. What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez is her debut novel.
MFOB featured book: What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez
When thirteen-year-old middle child Ruthy disappeared without a trace, it left the Ramirez family scarred and scrambling. One night, twelve 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 in search of their long-lost sister. Their mother, Dolores, insists on joining, along with her pot-stirring holy roller 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.
