Finding Your Voice: Blending Culture, Community and Heart in Contemporary Fiction With Alejandra Martinez

Alejandra Martinez is an Australian-Uruguayan writer based in the Blue Mountains of NSW. She migrated to Australia at the age of seven with her family, as a military dictatorship was about to take over the country. Her stories have been published in a range of anthologies and magazines, including Best Australian Stories (BlackInc.), Girls Talk and Puentes Review. She has also written short plays, one of which was performed at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta. An extract from her debut novel. Salsa in the Suburbs was the winner of the 2022 Newcastle Writers Festival Fresh Ink Emerging Writer Prize. In the 176th episode of The HYBRID Author Podcast host Joanne Zara Ellen Morrell, author of young adult fiction, women's fiction and short-nonfiction for authors, chats to Alejandra about: her inspiration to write suburban setting/Latinx culture 'Salsa in the Suburbs' and what it means for her personally approaching writing about cultural identity in a way that feels authentic and accessible, especially for readers who may not share the same background central themes of family, food and community in 'Salsa in the Suburbs' and these elements drive Alejandra's characters’ and shape the heart of her story Alejandra's advice to writers who want to tell stories rooted in their own culture or heritage while also reaching a broad audience and much more.