Today we’d like to introduce you to Pedro Medina.
Pedro, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am a writer and an editor, so they are two paths that, although they complement each other, have different paths to follow. As an editor, I started with the cultural and literary website suburnano.net about fifteen years ago. The next step was to create an independent publishing house with suburbano.net to publish authors who write in Spanish in the United States. To date, suburbano.net is the most read cultural website in Spanish in the United States and the most important international reference for our culture (also in the US). The publishing house, #SEd, is one of the three most important in the country in Spanish.
As a writer, I published my first book of short stories in 2013. I currently have six books published between short stories, novels and non-fiction. In 2017 my novel Varsovia won the Florida Book Awards and in 2020, I published Tour: una vuelta por la cultura popular de Miami, the first and only book, so far, in Spanish, to tell the history and pop culture of Miami from its beginnings to the current days.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
No, it has not been an easy road.
This is art and it is very difficult to make an artistic career that allows one to live from it.
If you add to this that it is an artistic career in Spanish, in a country in which Spanish is not the official language and there is no type of institutional support, such as scholarships and grants and where there is not even a community established Hispanic reader, then it’s even harder.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a writer and editor and I also give talks on Miami pop culture. My books are Manana no te vere en Miami, Marginal, Varsovia, Americana, La chica mas pop de South Beach, Tour: una vuelta por la cultura popular de Miami y Callejeros. Varsovia won the Florida Book Awards in 2017 and Tour has marked a before and after in the Hispanic culture of Miami and probably this is the book that also marked a before and after in my literary career. You can find my work as an author in pedromedinaleon.com and my work as an editor can be found in suburbano.net and on the publishing house www.suburbanoediciones.com.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
That you have to have a lot of discipline (schedules, dates and goals) and perseverance.
Contact Info:
- Website: pedromedinaleon.com
- Instagram: @pedromedinaleon
- Facebook: @medinaleonpedro
- Twitter: @pedromedina5
