A Brief Interview with David Gonzalez

You've had a distinguished essay and distinguished mystery featured in the Best American Essays and Best American Mysteries collections, respectively. Do you have a preference between writing non-fiction and fiction and how do you approach each medium differently?

Nearly everything I write comes from a deeply personal and biographical place and then somewhere along the process the emotion that I'm chasing starts to require the artifice of fiction. However, that particular essay that you're referring to, about my family and the restaurant we've owned for thirty years, was one of the few times where the road forked into nonfiction and demanded fealty to the actual events. I can't really explain it other than to say, I found the bone and cut as close to it as I could. 

You were born and raised in Miami and have often told me about the city's beautiful culture and food. Will you please use this platform to formally denounce Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. for breaking Julius Randle's shoulder in January 2024?

lol. No.

2026 has just started and a lot of people have goals and resolutions. Why do you think people do that?

Good question. I never put much stock into resolutions but since becoming a parent I've discovered some value in it. We ask our kids (and we do the same) to reflect on their past year and what they'd like to do differently in the coming one and it's in that moment, where they stop and take a moment to consider their lives, that something transformative happens, even if it is only for a moment, and is gone just as quickly.