by Maria Gorman from the May 6, 2024 issue
Tagline: When Ava's neighbor convinces her ot host a Cinco de Mayo party, she never expects it to include tacos, margaritas, and romance.
Observations: I am not sure, but this might be the first Woman's World story I've read to have a person of color in it. Please comment below if you remember this happening before. Either way, it's welcome and might I say long overdue. The time when mixed race couples are frowned upon is far behind us. It's wonderful to see a Woman's World story reflect the current times.
I really appreciated this sentence, which showed a physical reaction that did not include electricity of any kind.
"...he smiled, sending her pulse racing like an Indy car."
I liked seeing carnitas, an authentic Mexican dish, as his specialty. I love carnitas tacos. I live in Southern California and fantastic Mexican food is readily available. (It would have been perfect if they included a carnitas recipe elsewhere in the magazine.)
I also heard Luis's voice in my head with a Mexican accent, which was fun!
A tiny bit of criticism...I wish they'd been consistent with the italics for the Spanish words. They only italicized especialidad but should probably have included "hola," "amiga," and "perfecto."
Photo by Mike McCune via Flickr CCL.
13 comments:
I agree with you Kate! It was refreshing to read this story. It did annoy me a little about the lack of italicized phrases. I think that was probably an editing mistake.
On a different note (and I apologize if I just didn't see it) how can I find the WW editors email address? I'm thinking of submitting a story, but couldn't find where to send it. Thanks.
This is a great Cinco de Mayo story. Had just the right touch of flavor.
Lovely story! Happy to see a different culture represented, too. I do remember Susan Jaffer's story, "Pure Poetry" from 2019 also had a person of color, an African American heroine. It was also very sweet.
I enjoyed it, too. 😀
Enjoyed it very much!
Ah, so I WAS wrong. There was precedent for a person of color in one of their stories. Excellent. Let's hope there are more on the way.
I'm sorry to be a pest, but is there any way to find out where to send stories to Woman's World? I've checked their website for contact information, but the only submission information I found was on your blog. However, I still couldn't find the email addresses anywhere. I appreciate any guidance you can give me.
P.S. I should mention, I did find submission contact information for other article submissions they have in the magazine, just not for the fiction stories. So glad they still take fiction. It seems a lot of magazines no longer do.
Anonymous, if you have not yet been published in WW, send your story to fiction@womansworldmag.com.
Thanks, Shaffer40. I appreciate that. I looked everywhere, and couldn't seem to find that information. Hope you have a good weekend!
When I complained to a friend about the lack of "diversity" in Woman's World fiction, she said she believed the reader imagined her own ethnic/racial makeup as part of the characters. In the past, I have submitted a story that featured best friends, an elegant black woman and a short white redhead (the narrator), and also stories that included native Hawaiians and one about a Mexican family doing tamale-making at Christmas. All were rejected. A large percentage of Americans are not Snow White and it's good to know that WW is now acknowledging that fact.
I was a bit surprised when the call for Cinco de Mayo stories was announced as I had never seen that in the magazine before, so maybe this is something they are going for. I did send a story but mine wasn't accepted. It has a Hispanic family with a food truck.
I’m wondering if the call for submission announcements/info is exclusively on Facebook? Could info possibly be posted here, as well?
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