Giovanna Rivero, a Fulbright Faculty Development Program alumnus from Bolivia who received her master’s degree in Spanish language and literature from the Univ. of Florida in December 2008, published her second novel, Tukzon, historias colaterales (Grupo Editorial La Hoguera), in July of that year. The book, whose title alludes to the challenges of language structure through its spelling of the word Tucson, is a novel made up of 14 individual stories with a unifying theme. In Rivero’s own words, the book is “a hybrid novel about the immigration process in which the two women protagonists cross the desert looking to fulfill their dreams, but surprises are waiting for them everywhere. Readers can find science fiction, drama, and a good mood in Tukzon.” Rivera, who participated in the International Writing Program (IWP) at the Univ. of Iowa in 2004, was invited to Viterbo Univ. in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in October 2008, as one of three distinguished writers-in-residence from the IWP. She read from her novel and participated with the other writers-in-residence in a panel discussion on the values of internationalism.

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