Kirstin Valdez Quade Discusses ‘The Five Wounds’ and Her Writing Journey at UC’s Visiting Writers Series

Kirsten Valdez Quade Photo: Holly Andres Kirstin Valdez Quade did not initially envision her 2009 short story The Five Wounds as a full-length novel. But that’s what it became. “My now-editor emailed after the story came out and asked if I had considered turning it into a novel,” says Quade. “I wrote back very nicely, but said, ‘Absolutely not. I’m done. I’m working on other stories.’” A few years later, Quade was looking through story drafts and found three that dealt with similar themes, characters and settings. “I realized in a flash that it was the exact same family constellation that I’d been dealing with in the story The Five Wounds ,” recalls Quade. “They were different ages and it was at different points in their lives, but I thought, ‘Oh, wow. Maybe I actually am working on a novel.’” Published in 2021, the novel takes readers through the lives of the Padilla family, a multi-generational Latin American family living in the fictional city of Las Penas, New Mexico. Quade has crafted characters that feel all too real as they face issues like addiction, young motherhood, unemployment and fractured relationships. CityBeat caught up with Quade ahead of her talk at the University of Cincinnati’s Visiting Writers Series, where she will appear on Nov. 7 at 5:30 p.m. for a fiction reading and again on Nov. 8 at 3:30 p.m. in conversation with her literary agent, Denise Shannon. Both events take place in the Elliston Poetry Room, in Langsam Library. The novel opens with 33-year-old Amadeo, a mess of a man who has been given the role of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. Then there’s Angel, his 15-year-old pregnant daughter who shows up at his doorstep determined to make a better life for her and her baby. Her arrival at Amadeo’s comes after leaving her mother, Marissa. Readers also meet Yolanda, Amadeo’s mother, who learns that she’s terminally ill –– a fact she keeps secret. One of the things that drew Quade to the Padillas was their inter-generational dynamics. Each character has their own needs and is facing a […]

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