The River Runs: Stories

By Thomas Ray Garcia and Thomas Ray Garcia

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 Am rico Paredes Literary Arts Prize for Fiction sponsored by FlowerSong Press from McAllen, Texas, and Prickly Pear Publishing from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 188956821X
• ISBN13: 9781889568218
• Release Date: April 2023
• Publisher: Prickly Pear Publishing
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"