Paperback Book Launch: The Girls In Queens with Christine Kandic Torres & Christopher Gonzalez.

About the Book:

A MOST ANTICIPATED SUMMER READ FROM HARPER'S BAZAAR, BUSTLE, NYLON, THE MILLIONS, MS. MAGAZINE, and THE SKIMM.

SELECTED FOR THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S 2023 RISE FEMINIST BOOKLIST.

An unforgettable debut novel about the furious loyalty of two Latinx women coming of age and coming to terms with sexual assault in Queens, New York. Christine Kandic Torres’s incredible debut explores the unbreakable bonds of friendship, complications of sexual-abuse allegations within communities of color, and the danger of forgetting that sometimes monsters hide in plain sight.

“A gorgeous coming-of-age story . . . encapsulating the changing nature of time.”—Buzzfeed

Growing up in the ’90s along Clement Moore Avenue in Queens, Brisma and Kelly are two young Latinas with an inseparable bond. The girls are opposites: Brisma is sweet, sensitive, and observant; Kelly is free-spirited, flirtatious, and bold. Together, they binge on Sour Patch Kids, listen to Boyz II Men, and dance to Selena and Mariah Carey where no one can see them.

But in high school, their friendship begins to crack when Brisma falls for Brian, a charismatic baseball star. Brisma is thrilled to finally have something—someone—to herself. But Kelly wasn’t built to be a third wheel.

Years later, as the Mets begin a historic run for the playoffs, Brisma, Kelly, and Brian reconnect. Then Brian is charged with sexual assault. Brisma and Kelly find themselves on opposite sides of the accusation, viewing their past and past traumas from different vantage points, forcing the two lifelong friends to decide if their shared history is enough to sustain their future.

About the Author: 

Born and raised in Queens, NY, Christine Kandic Torres is a writer with Puerto Rican and Croatian roots. Her Pushcart Prize-nominated short fiction has been published in outlets such as Catapult, The Offing, Kweli, and Fractured Lit. A CUNY Brooklyn College graduate, and Hedgebrook and VONA alum, she is also the recipient of a Jerome Foundation emerging artist fellowship for fiction at the Anderson Center, and a 2020 New Work Grant from the Queens Council on the Arts. THE GIRLS IN QUEENS (HarperVia, 2022) is her first novel.

About the Conversation Partner: 

Christopher Gonzalez is the author of I’m Not Hungry but I Could Eat (SFWP 2021). A 2021 NYFA/NYSCA Artist Fellow in Fiction, his writing appears in Astra Magazine, Poets & Writers online, the Nation, Catapult, Best Microfictions, and Best Small Fictions, among other journals and anthologies. He currently serves as a fiction editor for Barrelhouse magazine and lives in Brooklyn, NY.