At a bar near Port Authority. Photo by Christa Neu.
Hola. Born and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, of Puerto Rican parents, I have worked as a writer for most of my career, in all kinds of magazine publishing and online. I also taught at the high school and college level—including at Columbia University and Boricua College. As a journalist, I have written for Gallery, Cable Guide, and TV Guide. My writing has been published by Aphros, DC Comics, Downtown, Faultline, Mississippi Review, Murdaland, ñ, Tales of the Zombie War, and as well as in the anthologies Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery and Indian Country Noir. I cowrote two screenplays, and there is a novel around here somewhere. I’ve performed onstage, for unbelievably popular podcasts, and for online video. I started this blog for no good reason.—R. Narváez aka Richie Narváez
Publication List
Short Stories
“The Disappearance of Doubt,” Spine Weevil (1992)
“Leticia Reclining,” Faultline, University of California, Irvine, vol. 1 (spring 1993)
“As Far away as Africa,” New Digressions (fall 1993)
“Unsynchronicity,” Mississippi Review, vol. 12, no. 4 (fall 2006)
“The Saint Bernards,” “A Grammarian Returns from the Future,” Flashshot (August 2007)
“Special Forces Training, Virginia, 1996,” Flashshot (September 2007)
“Roachkiller,” Murdaland Magazine (fall 2007)
“El Bohemio,” ThrillingDetective.com (winter 2007)
“The Helper,” Storyglossia.com (May 2008)
“In the Kitchen with Johnny Albino,” Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery (Arte Publico, March 2009)
“Rough Night in Toronto,” PlotswithGuns.com (May 2009)
“Ibarra Goes Down,” Yellow Mama (June 2010)
“Juracán,” Indian Country Noir (Akashic Books, June 2010)
“Old Pendejo,” TalesoftheZombieWar.com (July 2010)
“Watching the Iguanas,” Spinetingler.com (August 2010)
“Volcano Girl,” A Thousand Faces (November 2010)
“Hating Holly Hernandez,” You Don’t Have a Clue: Latino Mysteries for Teens (Arte Publico, spring 2011)
“Good Fences,” Powder Burn Flash (May 2011)
“Monkey in a Barrel,” Blackheart Magazine (summer 2011)
Essays
“The Mustache Merengue,” New York Perspectives vol. 1, no. 5 (February 23, 1990)
“Pretense?,” Downtown, no. 328 (Sept. 29, 1993)
“Our Minds Like Flypaper,” Downtown, no. 330 (Oct. 13–27, 1993)
“Work Slaves for that Old-Time Religion (Money),” Downtown, no. 335 (Dec. 22–Jan.5, 1994)
“Capitan del Carro,” The Glovebox Chronicles, no. 5 (December 1998)
“‘Escalante’ Portrayer Sneaks into PR Day Parade,” Pocho.com, June 1999
“Why I Hate Florida,” Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts (2008)
Poetry
“Los Sures,” “Old Men on Frost Street,” Cabaret, vol. 1, no. 1 (1987)
“Native New Yorkers,” “Better than This,” “Tale of a Gutless Mongrel,” “In the Dragon’s Room,” “Dictionary Love,” Downtown, no. 334 (Dec. 8–22, 1993)
“Mangoes Don’t Leave,” New Digressions (fall 1993)
“Inez My Dental Technician” and “Your Mouth on Me Always,” Faultline: Journal of Art and Literature, University of California, Irvine, vol. 1 (spring 1993)
“Long Hot Summertime Blues,” New Digressions (summer/fall 1994)
“I Saw Saddam in Brooklyn,” “Advice for Those Who Just Flew In,” “In Williamsburg, Before the Whiteys Moved In, Part 1,” “In Williamsburg, Before the Whiteys Moved in, Part 3, or Snot Cousin,” 11211 Magazine, vol. 3, no. 5 (May/June 2003)
“My Father Lived in Queens,” “Lost in Woodside,” “I Know It’s True Because I Saw It on TV,” Mind Gorrilla, no. 8 (2005)
“Catching Cupid,” “Christ at 13,” “Eating Broccoli, 6 p.m.,” Aphros, vol. 45 (2005)
“Inez My Dental Technician,” “Christ at 13,” RogueScholars.com (July 2005)
“Don’t Fret,” “Flight of the Therapists,” Long Island Sounds 2007
“Papi Was a Numbers Runner,” “Metro,” and “Judgment Day,” The Lineup (2008)
“Don’t Fret,” “A Stomach Growls for Love,” Long Island Sounds 2008
“Dog Star,” “Progression,” “Special Forces,” and “To The Wagon,” Writing Outside the Lines (Wild Side Press, forthcoming)
Books
Batman & Robin: Storybook, Pop-Up Book, and Activity Pad, DC Comics/Landoll (1997)
Total Justice Coloring & Activity Book (The Ultimate Weapon, Mission to Mars); Super Coloring & Activity Book (Against All Odds); Jumbo Coloring & Activity Book (Total Teamwork), Storybooks and Little Landoll Storybooks (And Justice for All and Justice on Apokolips), DC Comics/Landoll (1997)
Childhood’s Smell, Mongrel Publications (2005) (chapbook)
Editor (chapbooks)
The Doc Fayth Poems, by Graham Everett, Street Press/Mongrel Publications (1998)
Corps Calleux, by Graham Everett, Street Press/Mongrel Publications (2000)
Dimension Blues, by Robert McNamara, Mongrel Publications (2004)
Sorority Girls of the Seven Seas, by Dustin Michael, Mongrel Publications (2004)
In the Days of Wonder and Taco Salads, by R. Nicholas Shaw Jr., Mongrel Publications (2006)
The Book of Moran, by Daniel Thomas Moran, Mongrel Publications (2007)
The Lineup, chapbook series, coedited with Gerald So, Reed Farrel Coleman, and Sarah Cortez (2008–ongoing)
As a white guy, and a newcomer to this neighborhood, it’s been interesting to read about your childhood in Los Sures (albeit “highly fictionalized)”. I live around South 3rd and Union. It seems I’m in an embattled enclave, and I’m a bit conflicted about living here, as an outsider. I’m the face of gentrification, regardless of being poor myself. What do you think about the changes that have occurred here in the last 10 – 15 years? What else have have you written about this neighborhood?