New York Times best-selling author Sylvia Moreno-Garcia is a master of speculative fiction, known for her genre-defying stories inspired by her Mexican Upbringing. In an unforgettable evening hosted by the USF Humanities institute, Moreno-Garcia discusses her latest novel, Silver Nitrate, with Tampa-based book influencer Carmen Alvarez. The two covered topics ranging from media preservation to Hispanic identity, writing advice, and ghosts.

Since her critically-acclaimed 2020 novel, Mexican Gothic, Moreno-Garcia has made a name for herself as a trailblazer in Latin American horror. Her most recent work, Silver Nitrate, expertly combines the golden age of Mexican horror cinema with Nazi occultism in a supernatural suspense novel about a cursed film. The title takes its name from the volatile and once highly valued film with a flammable reputation.

In conversation with Alvarez, Moreno-Garcia reflects on her relationship with new and old media, the latter a recurring element in her works. She admits she is enamored with the idea of media “having some kind of transformative power.” Moreno-Garcia sought to explore this narrative potential by combining her childhood love of cinema with elements from her previous short story, Flash Frame. Certainly, her writing continues to attract readers through its captivating plots and social commentary which expands beyond the boundaries of setting and time.

Moreno-Garcia also examines the effects of emerging technology and media on her work, considering the role of AI and algorithms in the current creative landscape. She confesses she now has to face “all these problems I didn’t quite think through when I was thinking about Keanu Reeves and the Matrix.”

For one thing, algorithms have proven to be a double-edged sword for her discoverability as an author. Though her success has created more opportunities for Latin American writers, she has found that internet algorithms rarely highlight the work of more diverse creatives and oftentimes limit people from discovering emerging authors. She also addressed the difficulties of self-published authors in competing with “AI jumpbooks”- nonsensical works created with generative technology for profit- which have started to saturate online marketplaces.

Prompted by Alvarez, the author contemplates her own creative journey and her reputation as writer who defies expectations. She explains that her lack of creative writing education meant she wasn’t aware that what she was interested in doing was actually that unconventional; “When I was starting out, I didn’t recognize how hard it was to move between genres.” She claims she has no intentions of revisiting old novels, she like to keep things entertaining by moving on to the next project.

Sylvia Moreno Garcia has two upcoming works to looks forward to. The Lover, a self-described “fantasy inspired pseudo-horror story” will be released November first, but is available now to Kindle First readers. The second, her first non-genre historical fiction novel, The Seventh Veil of Salome, will be released Summer of 2024. If you are interested in more of her work, check out her website at silviamoreno-garcia.com. Carmen Alvarez, the evening’s moderator, can be found on Instagram @tomesandtextiles.