Marisel Vera is a proud Boricua from Humboldt Park, Chicago. Through her work, Vera explores the particular burdens that Puerto Ricans, on the island and in the diaspora, carry as colonial subjects of the most powerful country in the world.

 

Her acclaimed novel The Taste of Sugar (Liveright Publishing, June 2020) is a tale of love and endurance on the eve of the Spanish-American War, told through two Puerto Rican families. Vera is also the author of If I Bring You Roses (Grand Central), a story about a Puerto Rican couple who move to the United States during 1950s’ Operation Bootstrap to chase the American Dream in Chicago’s factories. 

 

In summer 2025, The Girls from Humboldt Park, Vera's next novel about Puerto Ricans in 1970s Chicago, will be published, also from Liveright.

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Vera is also the writer of You Can't Cover the Sky with Your Hand, a new play about Puertorriqueñas' struggle against reproductive violence.

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