Thomas Ray Garcia's new short story collection, The River Runs, won the Américo Paredes Literary Arts Prize for fiction, sponsored by FlowerSong Press, McAllen, Texas, and sister press Prickly Pear Publishing, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Garcia's compelling stories present life along the Texas-Mexican border, as seen through the eyes of many exciting and complex characters. Garcia's The River Runs is an excellent collection of stories that include voices of youth and older generations with all their angsts and joys of living in a betwixt and between, a place that is neither here nor there, such as the U.S.-Mexico border region.

Thomas Ray Garcia's debut short story collection presents revitalized insights into Texas-Mexico border culture, highlighting tales of resilience while refusing to shy away from the omnipresent reality the river imposes. Written from 2015 to 2020, these stories resist a singular vision of the border, centering the Rio Grande as a site of transformation.

Here, river crossings lead to cross-country runs and astral projections. A pregnant teenager learns about motherhood from a curandera. A scholarship boy grapples with his fronterizo identity. The sister of a border patrol agent lives in fear of deportation. A child looks into the eye of a drone and sees his family anew.

The River Runs: Stories won the Américo Paredes Literary Arts Prize for Fiction sponsored by FlowerSong Press from McAllen, Texas, and Prickly Pear Publishing from Santa Fe, New Mexico.