Elena Vasquez crafts magical realism narratives set in contemporary urban landscapes. After immigrating from Bogotá to Boston as a teenager, she draws from both worlds to explore themes of displacement, memory, and inherited trauma. Her third novel, "The Inheritance of Smoke," follows three generations of women who can briefly speak with the dead through objects left behind.
"Fiction allows us to build impossible bridges," Elena says. "I write about ghost-women who refuse to be forgotten, about smoke that carries messages across decades." Her prose style blends lyrical descriptions with sharp dialogue, creating what The New Yorker called "a luminous excavation of family secrets."
When not writing, Elena teaches creative writing at Emerson College, focusing on narrative techniques that bend reality to reveal emotional truths. "The stories we need most are often the ones that seem impossible at first glance," she explains. "Magic isn't escapism—it's another lens for examining what we can't face directly."