[Gabby Rivera]

Stefanie, this is excellent. Your voice is authentic and rooted in strength, vulnerability and truth. Love it all. Love the specific moments you lay out for us, to really put the reader in your life and make us laugh: I put ketchup on my pasteles. I can even makes that life changing lasagna just as good as you ever did. And there’s so much beauty in the writing too: Your Bronx was on literal fire, while mine choked on lingering invisible smoke. I wasn’t going to be another forgotten girl from the forgotten borough, so that train became my escape to the horizon. I think my main questions are: What happened with the mom?? Is she an ex-drug addict turned Evangelical? Was there a falling out about queerness? Some moments were just a touch unclear but that’s an easy fix, just a clarifying line here and there would fill those little voids. You got this!