437 ratings | 5 reviews | avg rating:4.06

J.L. Torres’s Followers (9)

J.L.’s Bookshelves

to-read (27)
currently-reading (2)
read (439)
did-not-finish (0)

J.L.’s Friends (71)

Naomi Ayala

474 books | 404 friends

KENDRA SISCOE

16,409 books | 4,281 friends

Danielle

222 books | 78 friends

Juan J. Morales

1,753 books | 372 friends

Ace Boggess

2,819 books | 802 friends

Aimee Baker

2,251 books | 236 friends

Norma Cantu

13 books | 563 friends

Sophfronia Scott

678 books | 830 friends

More friends…

J.L. Torres

Goodreads Author

Born

Cayey, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico

Website

https://jltorreswriter.com/

Genre

Fiction, Poetry

Member Since

May 2013

edit data

J.L.Torres was born in Cayey, Puerto Rico, a town in the center of the main island. He grew up in the South Bronx and received all of his formal education in the States. Then, he returned to the island to find roots and material for his writing. After years teaching at the college level there, he returned to New York. Besides New York City, he has lived in Madrid, Chicago, Los Angeles, and in Barcelona on a Fulbright.

His work focuses on the diasporican experience—living in the inbetweeness that forms and informs the Puerto Rican experience. In the collection, The Family Terrorist and Other Stories,the novel, The Accidental Native , as well as his poetry collection, Boricua Passport, he aims to go beyond issues of identity, although these ar J.L.Torres was born in Cayey, Puerto Rico, a town in the center of the main island. He grew up in the South Bronx and received all of his formal education in the States. Then, he returned to the island to find roots and material for his writing. After years teaching at the college level there, he returned to New York. Besides New York City, he has lived in Madrid, Chicago, Los Angeles, and in Barcelona on a Fulbright.

His work focuses on the diasporican experience—living in the inbetweeness that forms and informs the Puerto Rican experience. In the collection, The Family Terrorist and Other Stories,the novel, The Accidental Native , as well as his poetry collection, Boricua Passport, he aims to go beyond issues of identity, although these are central to that experience.

“Through my writing,” says Torres, “I am exploring what it means to live a life yearning for ‘belongingness’ at a time when you’re told nation and home are empty concepts, and you have no historical memory of what they ever meant.” He wants to explore what this means in a world becoming smaller and where geography cannot ground anything.

J.L.Torres graduated from Vassar College, double majoring in Hispanic Studies and Psychology. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. The Family Terrorist and Other Stories include some of the stories from his MFA thesis, Salchichon Soup.

He has freelanced for magazines and newspapers, was the Editor for the popular, but now defunct Salsa magazine, Latin NY. He also published a string of stories in small magazines. One of his stories was included in Growing Up Latino, a ground-breaking anthology published by Houghton-Mifflin.

While working on his doctorate, and learning to write critical essays, he channeled his creative writing efforts to poetry. To date, he has published poems in the North American Review, Denver Quarterly, the Americas Review, Crab Orchard Review, Bilingual Review, Connecticut Review, Tulane Review, Puerto del Sol, among others.

Currently, he focuses more on fiction and has published stories in various magazines, including the Dr. T.J. Eckleburg Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, the Americas Review, and Reunion: the Dallas Review. In 2020, Luis Alberto Urrea selected his second short story collection, Migrations, the winner of the Tomas Rivera Book Prize. LARB Libros will release the collection on June 1, 2021. Presently, he’s working on a novella on the Puerto Rican icon, Roberto Clemente.

J.L.Torres is Professor of English at SUNY Plattsburgh, where he teaches American literature, Latinx literatures, and Creative Writing. He was a co-founder and the Executive Editor of the Saranac Review besides the Co-Editor, along with Carmen H. Rivera, of Writing Off the Hyphen: New Perspectives on the Literature of the Puerto Rican Diaspora.

He lives in Plattsburgh, New York—known to friends and relatives as “carajo county”—with his wife and two sons, a spirited Coton de Toulear called Moe-jo, and a lot of snow. He has no known hobbies, has never been in prison or any gangs, has never had quirky and funky jobs, and is notoriously inept with tools. ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask J.L. Torres questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
J.L. Torres’s books

Average rating: 3.77 · 44 ratings · 16 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Accidental Native 3.86 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Migrations 3.72 avg rating — 18 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Family Terrorist and Other Stories 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2008	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Boricua Passport really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

0 posts
J.L. Torres's Blog

J.L. Torres hasn't written any blog posts yet.

J.L. is Currently Reading

J.L. Torres is currently reading

Simone

by Eduardo Lalo

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Oct 14, 2021 11:58AM

J.L. Torres is currently reading

A Naked Singularity

by Sergio de la Pava

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Aug 17, 2021 06:09AM

rss
J.L.’s Recent Updates

J.L. Torres made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — Removing a book that is not mine from my dashboard topic " Book Title: La Resistencia de la última escama (Trilogía Mundo Nuevo, Libro I) Author: J.L. Torres ISBN-13: 978-8411445788 ISBN-10: 841144578X Request: Pl ...more "
May 09, 2026 06:27PM
J.L. Torres joined the group Goodreads Librarians Group
May 09, 2026 06:19PM · like
J.L. Torres rated a book it was amazing James by Percival Everett	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
There's something pleasurable and simultaneously subversive about reading a novel that re-visits an iconic classic like Huckleberry Finn. Everett's masterful take on this narrative from Jim's perspective is brilliant and demonstrates the power of giv ...more
Mar 20, 2025 04:26PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of James by Percival Everett. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — James by Percival Everett <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of J.L.'s books…

Quotes by J.L. Torres (?)

“You one sorry suciopath, she said, peeling off your fingers from her hand in disgust, like they were slimy slugs. Then she went on to inform you on what a miserable, pathetic, shallow piece of crap you are. Then like the genuine Heartbreaking Samurai she was, she dealt you the mortal blow. Your wasted life is a disgrace to dying people everywhere, she said.”
― J.L. Torres, Migrations

tags: sex-addict, sex-addict-solution, sucio, transgender-representation

0 likes