Following last year’s critically acclaimed Telephone, Percival Everett’s The Trees weaves tropes of pulp-cop noir with trademark acuity and genre-bending inventiveness to deliver a swift, startlingly expansive take on the legacy of lynching in the American South.

Independent (or “indie”) bookstores are one of the many gems that emblazon and attract others to a community. Within their facets, they serve the local economy, bolster the small business industry, add flavor to a locality, and bring people together. Amidst the past year’s whirlwind of closures, layoffs, adjusted work environments, and various other impediments that affect how a community gathers and stays together, they thrived.

Prado perfectly encapsulates the insecurities of growing up and the never-ending search for identity in a society that tries to define and confine us at every chance it gets.

On my seventh birthday, my tía took me to the   beauty salon to get an alisado. It’s time that you   got rid of that pelo malo, she winked like a full   moon stretching above the sky. Her friend Puchi stirred   a white creamy concoction and smeared it over my   scalp […]