Reyna Grande Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Reyna Grande is a historical fiction author that was born in Guerrero Mexico until she was nine. When she was two years old, her father left home and headed to the United States and was soon followed by her mother.

At ten years old, her father came back for her and took her to the US as an illegal child immigrant which was quite a harrowing experience. In the United States she was living with parents she had not seen in eight years.

They resided in Highland Park in Los Angeles and she still remembers having a very conflicted relationship with her father. From very early on, she realized that her father abandoning them had created a huge chasm that could never be bridged.

In her teenage years, she got a bachelor’s degree from the University of California Santa Cruz, majoring in creative writing and literature. She would, later on, attend Antioch University from where she earned her creative writing MFA.

Over the years, she has won several awards including the American Book Award and a number of Latino/Chicano literary awards. She maintains membership in the Sandra Cisneros founded workshop the Macondo Writers Workshop.

For Reyna Grande, her experience as an immigrant significantly influenced her outlook on life and her career as an author. When she was a child immigrant she struggled to adapt to life in the United States.

When she went to high school and to college, she never found herself reflected in the many books she had to read as part of her coursework.

When she was at the University of California, she often felt very alienated and isolated even as she dealt with several dysfunctional relationships in her personal life.

She had always dreamed of becoming a fiction author but needing to make a living, she found herself in South Central Los Angeles teaching unruly students. With her family ties fraying, she gets increasingly lonely and feels suffocated.
At some point, she becomes a single mother and starts asking herself if that is what all her life would offer.

In her lowest moments, she found some solace in writing as it made it possible to deal with immigrant trauma and years of family betrayal and abuse.

In 1994 Reyna Grande went to Pasadena College as she was interested in getting a university education. At Pasadena, she wrote for “The Courier,” the college newspaper as a staff writer.

However, the most significant thing that happened while she was in college was meeting her English professor Dr. Diana Savas who would become her mentor.

The professor nurtured her writing talent and it was she who encouraged her to major in creative writing. When Grande’s father was taken in for abusing her mother, Dr. Savas invited Grande to go live with her.

It was while she was living with her professor that she got introduced to her favorite writer in Sandra Cisneros, who was a huge inspiration to the aspiring author.

By the time she left her professor’s home, she was very well motivated and on her way to becoming a successful published author.

“Across a Hundred Mountains, her debut novel got the American Book Award in 2007, and the Latino Books Into Movies Award in 2010.

Grande’s novels have been read widely across the United States and have been published across the globe.

“The Distance Between Us” by Reyna Grande tells the story of the author. When he was just a child, her father had left home leaving his children and wife behind in Mexico.

He had trekked across the dangerous trafficking routes to enter the US and promised to return with money to build the family their dream house. Months soon turn into years and his promises soon seem like convenient lies.

But then he summons Grande’s mother to join him in the states and they are all sent to live with their unsmiling and stern grandmother.

The three siblings had to look out for themselves for years as they found ingenious ways to solve some very adult challenges and forget the pain of abandonment.

When their mother finally makes a return, the reunion results in a dramatic new chapter in Reyna’s life. She embarks on her journey to the United States to live with the long-absent father that had haunted her imagination for many years.

It is a compelling memoir that brings to life Grande’s tumultuous years as it captures the contradictions and confusion of her early life. It was a difficult childhood spent torn between two countries and two parents.

Reyna Grande’s novel Across a Hundred Mountains is a poignant and stunning story of discovery, loss, and migration. It tells the story of two women, one born in the US and the other in Mexico, who find their lives intertwined in an unexpected fashion.

Juana Garcia has to leave her hometown in Mexico following a tragedy. She sets out to find her father who two years earlier had left home to go find work in the United States.

With no money and needing someone to help her cross the American border, she unexpectedly meets a young woman named Adelina Vasquez. She had left her hometown in Los Angeles to go find her lover in Mexico.

The two find each other in a Tijuana jail, and provide each other with spiritual and material support. This results in the formation of strong bonds of friendship that will never be broken.

In this brilliant work, Grande dives into the issue of Mexican immigration to the US. She provides an insider perspective on the issue including the economic and political implications of the issue.

“A Dream Called Home” by Reyna Grande is the exhilarating story of Reyna who is on a quest to become the very first-degree holder in her family. She is also looking to be the first to find a place she can call home in the United States.

Attending the University of California, she finds herself all alone for the first time but forges ahead despite the many challenges including estrangement and alienation from her new community and family.

After graduating from college, she goes back to LA to try to turn her creative writing qualifications into a full-time job. It is not long before she realizes that she may have been naive about the world of publishing.

Through all the obstacles that she is facing, she never lets go of her dreams and soon enough she goes from an illegal immigrant to an award-winning author.

Reyna pens a story detailing her arduous journey as she pursued her dream of becoming an author and finding a home.