Hinsdale author earns national recognition for her latest novel

By Anna Hughes

Meet Cristina Henríquez. She’s a critically acclaimed author who has called Hinsdale home for the last 17 years. The Northwestern alum has written four books: Come Together, Fall Apart (New York Times Editors’ Choice selection); The World in Half; The Book of Unknown Americans (a New York Times Notable Book of 2014 and one of Amazon’s 10 Best Books of the Year); and her latest novel, The Great Divide (a TODAY Show Read With Jenna Pick and a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection).

Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, TIME, among others. In this exclusive interview with Hinsdale Magazine Group, get to know more about Henríquez and hear the story behind her stories.

Hinsdale Magazine Group (HMG): When did reading and books first enter your life?

Cristina Henríquez (CH): I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t reading—books from the school library, books from the Scholastic Book Fair. Pizza Hut used to have a program where if you read enough books you would earn a personal pan pizza. I loved doing that.

HMG: When did you first start writing?

CH: I started writing a little bit in high school, but mostly just weird, experimental things in a journal I kept. It wasn’t until college that I started writing in any structured way.

HMG: What fostered your interest in reading and writing, ultimately leading to your pursuit of it as a career?

CH: It’s hard to say. My paternal grandfather was a writer, so it’s possible that reading and writing were in my blood, thanks to him. Beyond that, my parents have always been very supportive, and I’ve had a number of extraordinary teachers along the way who have put books into my hands and who have encouraged me.

HMG: Let’s talk about your first book, Come Together, Fall Apart. Did you set out to write it, or was it something that came to be over time?

CH: At first, I was writing short stories without any particular intention to collect them in a book, but once I had a few that I felt were strong, I started looking for the through-line that connected them, and before long I was writing new stories that carried that forward.

HMG: What is your writing process? How has this evolved from your first book until now?

CH: In the very early days, I wouldn’t sit down to write unless I knew in my mind the full arc of the plot. In graduate school, I made a conscious decision to try a different approach, which was simply to know one sentence. That’s all. To write it down and see where it took me. That really opened up my process and made it much more organic, much more about discovery and less about the imposition of myself.

HMG: How has your own life and culture influenced your writing?

CH: I’m a believer that everything goes into the pot. Obviously the fact that I’m half-Panamanian has led to me writing set in Panama, but I really believe that everything that I’ve been through and have done and have read, everyone I’ve ever known—all of it contributes in some way.

HMG: Why is it important to you to write stories that feature the Latinx community and/or other communities that are often marginalized? Did you always know this was the lens through which you wanted to tell stories?

CH: I think that everyone deserves to be heard and that the world is a better place when that happens. But mostly I’m writing about stories and characters and places that are personal to me. When I situate my mind in that way, it seems that my writing takes flight.

HMG: Have you had an “I made it moment?”

CH: I don’t know if I have! But every once in a while, I’ll get a very heartfelt email from a reader, and knowing that my work means something to someone is amazing and really humbling.

HMG: What’s the best piece of writing advice or inspiration you’ve received?

CH: A piece of advice that I return to again and again is something a professor said when I was in graduate school: “Have faith in the process, not in the product.” It’s so easy to get hung up on this thing that you feel like you’re writing, but it’s important to remember that no matter how many bad or good writing days you have, they’re all okay—and more than okay, they are necessary, part of a process that will, if you stick with it, get you to where you are meant to go.

HMG: Tell us about how your most recent novel, The Great Divide, came to be.

CH: I first had the idea to write a book about the Panama Canal about 20 years ago. I grew up visiting my family in Panama, and I often went to the canal while I was there, so it was something that fascinated me for a long time.

When I finally decided to tackle it, I started by reading all the books I could find about the canal. Little by little, as I better understood the time and the historical forces at work, specific characters and scenes began to form in my mind.

HMG: You were featured in Jenna Bush Hager’s book club on the Today Show for this novel alongside renowned author

Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street). What was it like to be highlighted nationally in this way, especially in connection with an iconic author and novel?

CH: It was an incredible experience—and getting to do it with Sandra, no less! She’s one of my writing heroes, which made it all the more special.

HMG: What would you tell aspiring writers?

CH: My advice is simple: Read. The more you read, the better you will write.

HMG: What is a goal you are working towards in the future?

CH: One of these days, I would like to become a more consistent exerciser!

HMG: Are there any other books in the works that you can preview for us?

CH: I wish! I have a loose idea for something, but it hasn’t taken shape quite yet.

HMG: Is there anything else you’d like to tell readers?

CH: I’d like to give a shout-out to the Hinsdale Public Library. I wrote much of The Book of Unknown Americans in a study room at the library, and the amazing librarians there were instrumental in helping me as I researched The Great Divide.

For more information on Cristina and her work, visit cristinahenriquez.com.