Richard Z. Santos
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rzsantos.bsky.social
Richard Z. Santos
@rzsantos.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.5K following 640 posts
Debut novel TRUST ME from Arte Público Press; ed. A NIGHT OF SCREAMS LATINO HORROR STORIES; Freelance Editor (reach out!)
Lots of essays, reviews, etc in Texas Monthly and others. Recovering politico. Seeking representation,2nd novel done, 3rd in progress
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rzsantos.bsky.social
Well these next hurdles seem significant. Finding 13 R's in the Senate seems like a climb.
If the bill does pass the House, it will then be sent to the Senate, where it faces tough odds. The Senate is under no obligation to take up bills sent by the House, and it would take 60 votes to force any action on the floor. Democrats hold 47 seats, and so even if they all backed the measure, they would still need 13 Republicans to buck Mr. Trump’s wishes and join them. If the bill were to pass the Senate, it would be sent to the president’s desk, and he would be all but certain to veto it. Even if he did not, the only way to compel cooperation with such a measure would be for the House to enforce it by holding the attorney general in contempt of Congress, an exceedingly unlikely scenario.
November 13, 2025 at 1:46 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
I love Texas Book Festival weekend, and programming Lit Crawl the past few years has been so special. Amazing writers, wonderful hosts, and special venues make for a book lover's dream. If you were there, thank you! If you weren't, you have about a year to wait until the next one.
The crowd during noir at the bar Adrian Todd zuniga giving the pre LDM spiel Nic stone
November 10, 2025 at 9:30 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
A spectacular night at Cheer Up Charlies for Lit Crawl! Lots of poetry, noir, and Literary Death Match.
Inside 7 – 7:45 PM Praisesong for the People: Celebrate the release of Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas, edited by the 61st Texas Poet Laureate, Amanda Johnston. Poets featured in the anthology will share praise poems celebrating unsung heroes from their communities. FEATURED AUTHORS: Amanda Johnston, Zell Miller, Sam Treviño, and more 7:45 – 8:30 PM Torch Showcase: Celebrating Black Women Writers: Writers from across genres read in this inspiring showcase of emerging and established local and national authors FEATURED AUTHORS: C. Prudence Arceneaux, Ebony LaDelle, Carrie R. Moore, Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo, and Fabienne Josaphat HOSTED BY: Amanda Johnston 8:30 – 9:30 PM Texas Poetry Crush: Have you ever had a crush on a poem? How about a poet? Five poets will share poems by a Texas poet they admire and read their own poems inspired by living in Texas. FEATURED AUTHORS: Cecily Parks, Sebastián Páramo, C. Prudence Arceneaux, Amanda Johnston, Cloud Cardona, Bo Hee Moon, Hala Alyan, and Saúl Hernández 9:30 – 10:30 PM Librotraficantes: Banned Book Bash: Librotraficantes and allies flagrantly flout contraband prose from books that have been formerly banned, currently banned, or are so freakin’ good they are bound to be banned in the future. FEATURED AUTHORS: Jasminne Mendez, Ivan Gerardo Morales, Zeke Peña, Outside Stage 7:30 – 8:30 PM Noir at the Bar: A collection of some of the best hard-boiled and noir writers from around the country read from their dark-hearted work. Expect a night of humor, crime, and style. FEATURED AUTHORS: Nic Stone, Sara Sligar, Mike McCrary, Meg Gardiner, and Ashley Winstead 8:30 – 10 PM Literary Death Match: Literary Death Match, now in 73 cities worldwide, brings together a mix of four brilliant writers to read their most electric writing for five minutes or less before a live audience and a panel of three all-star judges. After each reading, the judges take turns spouting hilarious commentary about each story, and then select their two favorites to advance to the finals. There, the show trades in its literary sensibility for a comical climax as the finalists play a game (think “Pin the Mustache on Hemingway”) to determine who will take home the Literary Death Match crown. FEATURED AUTHORS: Xelena Gonzalez, Maris Kreizman, Claire Jia, Rex Ogle, Andrew Porter, Bob Shea, and YuYi Morales. HOSTED BY: Adrian Todd Zuniga
November 8, 2025 at 4:42 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
Just 4 of the Lit Crawl sessions tonight during Texas Book Festival!

texasbookfestival.org/2025-litcrawl/
Speakeasy Austin Music Lounge 7 – 8 PM Writers’ League of Texas Presents Build a Story: For this one-of-a-kind event, join the Writers’ League of Texas staff and some of your favorite authors to build a story – sentence by sentence. Authors will respond to audience prompts (however serious, silly, or ridiculous) and craft a three act story in real time. What could go wrong? You won’t want to miss it! FEATURED AUTHORS: Marcela Fuentes, Ashley Whitaker, Christopher Brown, Megan Okonsky, and Lucas Schaefer 8 – 9 PM Haunt Happy Horror Trivia: A live trivia game show featuring horror and dark fiction authors as contestants. This session is hosted by Lockhart’s Haunt Happy Books. FEATURED AUTHORS: Dan Chaon, Johnny Compton, Adrianna Cuevas, Jessica Hagemann, and Stephen Graham Jones Kabaret 7 – 8 PM Worded Funny: Worded Funny is Austin’s only literary humor show, with readings from our city’s best (and best up-and-coming) short-form satire and humor writers. Experience the charm and wit of prose comedy, as read by its authors FEATURED AUTHORS: Jessica Francis Kane, Kari Lavelle, John Scalzi, Laurie Woolever, Annie Hartnett, Ruth Pennebaker, Valerie Nies, Dina Gachman, Lucy Frost, and Wendi Aarons 8 – 9 PM Austin Bat Cave Presents Austin Originals: Join us for readings from Austin writers who are challenging genres, upending expectations, and turning Austin into one of the most exciting literary scenes in the country. FEATURED AUTHORS: Callie Collins, Rickey Fayne, Fernando Flores, Stephen Harrigan, and more. Speakeasy Austin Music Lounge 7 – 8 PM Writers’ League of Texas Presents Build a Story: For this one-of-a-kind event, join the Writers’ League of Texas staff and some of your favorite authors to build a story – sentence by sentence. Authors will respond to audience prompts (however serious, silly, or ridiculous) and craft a three act story in real time. What could go wrong? You won’t want to miss it! FEATURED AUTHORS: Marcela Fuentes, Ashley Whitaker, Christopher Brown, Megan Okonsky, and Lucas Schaefer 8 – 9 PM Haunt Happy Horror Trivia: A live trivia game show featuring horror and dark fiction authors as contestants. This session is hosted by Lockhart’s Haunt Happy Books. FEATURED AUTHORS: Dan Chaon, Johnny Compton, Adrianna Cuevas, Jessica Hagemann, and Stephen Graham Jones Kabaret 7 – 8 PM Worded Funny: Worded Funny is Austin’s only literary humor show, with readings from our city’s best (and best up-and-coming) short-form satire and humor writers. Experience the charm and wit of prose comedy, as read by its authors FEATURED AUTHORS: Jessica Francis Kane, Kari Lavelle, John Scalzi, Laurie Woolever, Annie Hartnett, Ruth Pennebaker, Valerie Nies, Dina Gachman, Lucy Frost, and Wendi Aarons 8 – 9 PM Austin Bat Cave Presents Austin Originals: Join us for readings from Austin writers who are challenging genres, upending expectations, and turning Austin into one of the most exciting literary scenes in the country. FEATURED AUTHORS: Callie Collins, Rickey Fayne, Fernando Flores, Stephen Harrigan, and more.
November 8, 2025 at 3:45 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
I tried to map out the big picture plot movements for my WIP and came up with a nice path that is actually a pretty common story structure.

Starts with: I don't know that something is happening. Goes into awareness, making a plan, scrapping the plan, and so on.
I don’t even know that something’s happening Something’s happening but I don’t know understand it I think I understand what’s happening and what I need to do I need to do this by myself Turns out I don’t know what’s happening and I actually need to do something different Turns out I’m not doing this by myself Okay, I’m going to do it. Turns out, at the last minute, I’m going to do something different, which is what I actually need to do. Everyone’s here The End
November 3, 2025 at 2:19 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
Reading at Verso Frontera in San Antonio tomorrow! part of an essay or part of a story? Lots of poets on the lineup so, you know, I better be good.
10/18 Verso Frontera Literature and Arts Festival: 11:45 to 4:30 Our Lade of the Lake University Main 311
October 17, 2025 at 5:09 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
Mind boggling detail about the weapon in Austin's yogurt shop murders. The gun used here, in KY, elsewhere(?)was taken at a Border Patrol checkpoint. The killer sped off and the feds pursued. Later, they RETURNED the gun to the killer's father. Killer used the same gun to kill himself years later.
Federal authorities confiscated Brasher's .380 pistol at a checkpoint near Las Cruces, N.M., and Brashers, apparently fearing police would realize he was in a stolen car, took off, leading to a short pursuit. Authorities think it is possible that Brasher got rid of evidence from the yogurt shop during that chase. Authorities returned the gun to Brashers’ father, who police believe later gave it to his son. According to published reports, Brashers died when he shot himself, using what Austin officials have concluded was the same weapon, during an hourslong standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Mo.
September 29, 2025 at 12:43 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
This piece is about Trailer Space Records that closed down 10 years ago this October. I'm definitely going to do something else with the longer versions and talk to more people. TS was important in lots of music scenes. Strong memories and intense feelings. There's more here for sure!
Spot Long behind the counter at Trailer Space. By Jim Curtin for the Chronicle
September 19, 2025 at 1:20 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
Getting my allergy shots and the tech who just jabbed me asked about my book (Mother-Eating by Jess Hagemann) and started going into very very detailed descriptions about the extreme horror he likes. Directed him to the @ghoulish.bsky.social site. He perused it and said, "They seem pretty subtle."
Mothereating by Jess Hagemann
September 11, 2025 at 2:31 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
I can't even tell y'all how much I loved Fight Night. An astounding blend of hilarity, tenderness, familiarity, and all the emotions in between. It moves like a rocket. Play ball!
Fight Night by Miriam Toews
September 8, 2025 at 6:01 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
I wrote an essay about learning to swim, being a stay-at-home parent, the endless job search in the age of AI, and how all that is similar to the round and round nature of the writing life. I like it!

No luck placing it yet, but maybe I'll just post it on my website. Here's a snippet!
Passing the swim test means you can go on the outdoor slides. The day she passed the test she did the outdoor slide—a covered, twisty beast—approximately forty times in a row. She’d splash down, swim to the side of the pool, climb up, take the stairs, and go again. Then again. That same day, another literary agent complimented me effusively and then passed on my novel. After at least twenty minutes of her going around and around in the slide she came to me for water. I asked her why she kept doing the same slide over and over again. “Because I like the splashes,” she said.
August 26, 2025 at 4:49 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
My 1st for @slate.com on high-end writing retreats. Some are hosted by teachers, and others are hosted by people who just seem to own a chateau. My first thought was that beginning writers were getting ripped off! My second thought was jealousy. (pls read past the hedline) slate.com/life/2025/08...
Want to be a writer? First, spend a minimum of $4,095 to travel to Guatemala, where you’ll be treated to a beachside massage and a traditional Mayan Shaman fire ceremony. You can then hone your craft during a week on the Queen Mary ($1,175, not including the cabin) or at an estate in Tuscany ($4,200), or while indulging in writing in a French chateau and visiting local artisan markets ($4,200). Spend the mornings doing yoga and the afternoons horseback riding, two activities that are so common that I’d consider asking for my money back if they didn’t appear on my itinerary. At these high-end writers retreats, chef-prepared meals are de rigueur, and what’s the point of a trip to France or Italy without ever-flowing wine? Maybe—if your jet lag and the wine from the night before have worn off—you can even sneak in a little writing time. I’ve been bombarded by offerings to spend money to develop my writing skills over the course of my 15-year career: editors for hire, online and in-person workshops, private consultations with book gurus, and many, many retreats. But recently, the amenities on these trips have become so luxurious and the prices so eye-popping that I’ve begun to wonder: Just what kind of amateur writer goes on these five-star literary retreats? And, more to the point, how many of them are being ripped off? My first thought as I perused these offerings was an unfair one: Anyone with the time and money to embark on one of these vacations couldn’t possibly be a “real” writer. Real writers sit under flickering fluorescent lights in musty conference rooms and workshop short stories about sad suburbanites. The people on these excursions must be easy marks for so-called experts peddling a high-priced secret to literary acclaim and riches. My second thought was: Why haven’t I been invited to teach at any of these? Writers with the resources to travel the world and indulge in a high-end retreat should do their research and make sure the organizers are qualified, trained, and equipped to deliver an experience that will help them move forward with their craft. Williams emphasizes that writers need to really understand what they’re getting into because each retreat will be different. “It’s really important to identify up front what [writers] are paying for,” she says. “ ‘You’re going to get this many hours with this many teachers, and you’ll get this kind of feedback.’ ‘On this retreat, we read your pages in advance.’ ‘On this retreat, we don’t read your pages in advance.’ ” f course, there are clear class divides at play here, which means these retreats don’t bring out the most diverse cohort of writers. Williams knows that this is a flaw in the system and brought it up before I even had a chance to ask. “Every writing event I have ever been to in my entire life, both talent-tested application retreats and pay-to-play retreats and conferences, are all 98 percent white ladies,” she says. “Women of an age where they are able to boss their own life and choose their own calendar. And for most women, that’s somewhere around 60 or 70.” Whether they’re on their fifth novel or just putting pen to paper, writers need a community and readers willing to look at their pages with a critical eye. Many of the people going on retreats, attending local writing conferences, and signing up for virtual classes are women who have started writing late in life not because they didn’t want to write earlier, but because job and family demands kept them from diving in.
August 25, 2025 at 12:33 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
I got one of these too. Look, everyone who applied thought this would happen. And no one applies thinking they'd win. I've read for this grant and the competition is EPIC. But you've got to try. This regime despises creativity and heart; we can fold or we keep going because they're scared of us.
August 22, 2025 at 5:33 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
I'm writing about high-end writing retreats and would love to talk to people who have done one of these.

Have you (or someone you know) paid for a writing retreat in Europe, a cruise, any other luxe environment? Love it? Hate it? Either way, I want to talk to you.

Thanks for spreading the word!
A fancy villa on blue water
July 24, 2025 at 8:21 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
"It's another of those nights."
Cover of sleepless night by margrethe de moor
April 25, 2025 at 10:18 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
What is the SA Book Fest trying to do to me!! Cristina Rivera Garza at the same time as Gabino Iglesias, Johnny Compton, and Theodore van Alst? @gabino.bsky.social @comptonwrites.bsky.social
Cristina Rivera Garza 1215 at Russell Roger's Tent Gabino Johnny and Ted at Texas Monthly Tent. 1215
April 12, 2025 at 4:18 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
This is what I did.
A copy of ghoulish tales in front of ghoulish books
April 11, 2025 at 7:31 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
The San Antonio Book Festival is this Saturday! The lineup is spectacular as always. I'm moderating this talk with Stephen Graham Jones at 3:15.

Check out the rest of the lineup here

sabookfestival.org/schedule/
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter with Stephen Graham Jones. 315 Russell Hill Roger's Tent.
April 9, 2025 at 1:03 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
The Austin Indie Book Fair is today at Radio East! Storms will be gone by the time we start. Dozens of vendors including all your fave book stores and local authors. Plus drag queen story hour plus poetry plus me hosting some readings!
Aibf schedule 1230 Drag Dtory Hour, 2pm Prose readings, 3pm poetry. Radio East!
April 5, 2025 at 2:04 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
Night Reads tonight at Quacks on Menchaca! 7pm. Come hear great horror and dark fiction readers.

Cool people, quick readings, pastries.
Nightreads at CAPTAIN QUACKS. 3/30 7pm.
March 30, 2025 at 10:22 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
Another Night Reads is coming up this Sunday in South Austin. Reach out if you've got something dark (doesn't have to be horror) you'd like to read.

We've had decent crowds and readers can sell their books if they have any. Happy to answer questions.
Night Reads at Captain Quacks Sunday march 30th. 7pm to 9pm.
March 25, 2025 at 10:09 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
Beach reads are sorted! Shout out @ghoulish.bsky.social @styxteeth.bsky.social and @tenebrouspress.bsky.social
A feast of putrid delights taken at the pool Lumberjack on the beach
March 17, 2025 at 8:07 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
Done!

Will I read it to a six year old? TBD.
Split screen featuring Cynthia Gomez and M Lopes da Silva
March 14, 2025 at 6:02 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
Okay @ghoulish.bsky.social my daughter wants a La Llorona book (La Lanona as she says it) so you better have one or you'll be answering to her.
Creepy sign pointing towards Ghoulish entrance Book room at Ghoulish
March 14, 2025 at 4:01 PM
rzsantos.bsky.social
April 6th at Lark and Owl Books in Georgetown, TX!

I'll be leading a horror workshop. Have you always wanted to write horror? Have a few ideas but don’t know where to start?
Sign up now!

www.larkandowlbooksellers.com/products/hor...
Workshop with Author Richard Z Santos, April 6th 5-7pm Lark and Owl books.
March 4, 2025 at 2:31 PM