Claudia Hernandez is the author of the narrative essay Knitting the Fog.

TBF: Why did you write your new book? What was your inspiration? Where did the idea start?

Claudia Hernandez: I wrote my new book out of necessity. It was like a howl that needed to be let out. I grew up immersed in so much beauty and at the same time in domestic violence. I needed an outlet and writing became just that. Poetry was my heaven. My family, my town, my country became my inspiration. My pen became my weapon. I began writing in my mid-twenties after I had my daughter. Writing became my therapy and my art.

TBF: What’s the last book you read, loved, and can’t stop recommending? Why is it so good?

CH: The last book I read was Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon. This poetry collection is dark and powerful. It leaves the reader examining one’s chaotic life. It deals with aging, love, death, feminism. It’s a necessary read. Piercing!

TBF: What’s the first book you remember reading? Who gave it to you?

CH: I have a terrible memory. The one book I do remember reading in English from front cover to back cover is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. My sixth-grade teacher gave it to me. I specifically remember this book because I struggled reading it with my broken English. I had been in the US for only one year and a half. But I read it all by myself and I felt proud. In Guatemala, we had no books or libraries in our small town. Our schools were very poor, too. Reading this book by myself was a huge success in my eleven-year-old head. I’ll never forget that.

Claudia Hernandez is one of 300 authors who will appear at the 2019 Texas Book Festival which takes place October 26-27th 2019 in downtown Austin. The Festival is free and open to the public! Check out all of this year’s authors.