Originally from Puerto Rico, CORAL RIVERA (b. 1986) was raised in Oviedo, Florida, just outside of Orlando. She grew up within the aura of Walt Disney World, and so believed that magic was real - even if she had to be the one to create it. She just wasn't quite sure how until middle school when, amongst family struggles which led her to spend a long summer with her family in Puerto Rico, she found escapism in writing stories, and never looked back.

 

Coral has previously published two novels. Her most recent novel is entitled Shift, a genre-bending fictional work with detectives, shapeshifters, and found family. She is currently working on its sequel, a collab project about teen witches, and a fantasy-adventure-romance based in 1960’s Puerto Rico. She has also had a creative non-fiction piece in Cardigan Press’s Byline Legacies anthology, as well as two digital pieces for Full Mood magazine. Coral's work encapsulates her personal journeys and struggles, but in the lens of fanstical, sometimes mythological, protagonists. One of her signatures is to include the music which inspires the story somehow in the work itself - whether it's in landmarks or chapter titles or full on scenes based on songs themselves. It is her fondest hope for others to find solace and healing in reading her characters as much as she did in writing them. Her mission moving forward in her writing career is to bring more Puerto Rican characters to the forefront of fictional fantasy tales.