Jennine Capó Crucet

Jennine Capó Crucet is a Cuban-American novelist and essayist whose work examines identity, assimilation, and the immigrant experience in the United States with sardonic wit and emotional depth. Born in Hialeah, Florida, she holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin and currently lives in North Carolina. Her debut novel Make Your Home Among Strangers (2015) won the International Latino Book Award and has been adopted as a community read by more than forty US universities. Her essay collection My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education (2019) was longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award. Say Hello to My Little Friend (2023) was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The novel follows Ismael Reyes, a young Cuban-American man in Miami who becomes obsessed with Al Pacino's Scarface while trying to make it as a reggaeton musician. Crucet won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize in 2025 (as co-winner). Her debut collection How to Leave Hialeah (2009) won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. She has contributed opinion pieces to The New York Times and appeared on PBS NewsHour and NPR. Her work is celebrated for its comic timing, cultural specificity, and unflinching examination of class and race in Florida.