Jennine Capó Crucet

Jennine Capó Crucet is a novelist, essayist, and former Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times. Her novel Make Your Home Among Strangers (2015) won the International Latino Book Award, was named a New York TimesEditor’s Choice book, and was cited as a best book of the year by NBC Latino, the Guardian, the Miami Herald, and other venues; it has been adopted as an all-campus read at over forty American universities. She is also the author of the multiple award-winning story collection How to Leave Hialeah (2009) and the essay collection My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education (2019), which was long-listed for the 2019 PEN America/Open Book Award. Her fourth book, a novel titled Say Hello to My Little Friend, is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster. Her writing has appeared on PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, and in publications such as the Atlantic, Condé Nast Traveler, and others. Born and raised in Miami to Cuban parents, Crucet has worked as a professor of ethnic studies and of creative writing at the University of Nebraska and Florida State University, as a college access counselor to first-generation college students from low-income families, and as a sketch comedienne. She lives in North Carolina with her family.