nonfiction – Page 2 – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: Some thoughts on ‘Writers on Writing’

What some of the best in the craft say about voice and rhythm, getting started, similes and metaphors, and the need for writers to “admit that nothing in this world makes sense.”

It was a cool winter’s day and I was on a minor dusting spree when I discovered tucked away in a far corner of my bookcase a paperback called Writers on Writing: A Bread Loaf Anthology. Published in 1991 by Middlebury College Press and edited by a couple of Middlebury English professors, Robert Pack and Jay Parini (neither of whom I’d heard of), the list of authors displayed on the cover piqued my interest. There, presented on a slant, a graphic treatment no doubt trendy in the late ’80s and early ’90s, was an all-star cast of writers I recognized–Stanley Elkin, Richard Ford, John Irvin, Erica Jong, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O’Brien–along with many names I didn’t. Holding the book in my non-dusting hand, I studied the cover and concluded I must have purchased it at some long ago library book sale, then tucked it away for safekeeping. (I’m always a sucker for books about the writing craft, and buy any I find, especially if they’re cheap.)

I set aside the dust rag and began reading. Dusting would have to wait.

New flash non-fiction: ‘Livin’ la Vida Pocha’

Some thoughts about cultural identity and assimilation into the Great American Melting Pot

For years, I’ve had a fascination with my Mexican-American heritage and how little I am connected to it–how there is little more to that heritage now than the surname, Careaga. Some thirty years ago, when I first learned there was a term for people like me, pocho, or pocha in the feminine (see more about the terms below), I started writing short pieces, mostly non-fiction or maybe autofiction, about coming to terms with this lost identity and claiming this pocho identity. “Livin’ la Vida Pocha,” published in Issue 4 of the outstanding literary magazine In Short: A Journal of Flash Nonfiction, is the first of these pieces I’ve had published. I’m working on others, so stay tuned.

My attempt with this piece is to express my mixed feelings about my cultural identity and assimilation into the Great American Melting Pot in a direct, deeply personal style. I hope you like it. Many thanks to In Short founder and editor-in-chief Steph Liberatore for her support of this piece and for her edits, which improved the piece greatly.

The year in numbers

Another end-of-year wrap-up that nobody asked for.

I’m not going to bore you with some tale of woe about all the personal life challenges 2025 brought to me and my loved ones. We all face those, year in and year out, and some years are tougher than others, and in the end, it’s all relative. Suffice it to say that I’m a fortunate person and I try to be grateful for all of life’s blessings.

So instead, I will bore you with a listicle about my year in writing.

Friday Five: the year in books

My annual list of favorites.

I’ve consumed (read and/or listened to) a lot of books (for me) this year, and I’m still reading some newer releases, but I think I’ve read enough to come up with my at-the-moment year-end list. So, here goes.

Disclaimer: this is not a “best-of” list. I’m not smart enough to declare what is best for anyone but myself. So here you’ll see favorites and least favorites.