An Interview with Writer-In-Residence Yssis Cano-Santiago

The Associates of the Boston Public Library recently announced that Yssis Cano-Santiago has been awarded the 2024-25 Writer-in-Residence. Yssis Cano-Santiago is a Puerto Rican and Mexican writer with a B.A. in Global Public Health and a B.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She currently works as a paralegal for the Boston Public Health Commission. She is a passionate advocate for increased healthcare access, a theme she enjoys incorporating into her writing. Yssis’ proposed young adult novel, A Hypochondriac’s Guide to Love, tells the story of two Latinx teens coming of age in 1990s Miami while contending with mental health struggles, chronic illness, racism, gentrification, and loss.

We are delighted to shine a spotlight on Yssis, whose academic background, heritage, and creative thinking process offer a unique perspective, which we had the privilege of gaining access to:

Can you tell us a little about yourself, your background, and what drew you to writing?

My name is Yssis Cano-Santiago. I’m a 23-year-old woman of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent. I was raised by my single mother and grandmother in a working-class, low-income community predominantly made up of Caribbean immigrants in Orlando, Florida. For as long as I’ve been able to hold a pencil, I’ve been a writer. My mom instilled in me a deep love of books, words, and knowledge, which soon evolved into a passion for telling my own stories. I would spend hours in my room writing short stories in journals, on scraps of paper—anything I could find. Sometimes, I would even wake up in the middle of the night with a new story idea that I had to write down. My brain has always been a very noisy place, and I discovered at a young age that the most effective way to break through all the noise is to write.

Can you share your career journey, particularly your background in law, and how it may have influenced your writing? How did you pivot to writing, or have you always pursued multiple career passions, including writing?

Writing has always been my first love. My second love, I would say, is public service. I see pursuing law as a marriage of the two. Growing up, I watched my mother battle a debilitating chronic illness in which she was dismissed at every turn by healthcare providers. It wasn’t until college that I realized this wasn’t just true for my mother but was something occurring across BIPOC communities.

I was fortunate to have been awarded a full-ride scholarship to attend college, and I knew I had to study something that could help uplift BIPOC communities, change health outcomes, or influence legislation in some way. So, I decided to pursue public health on a pre-law track. While I was a student, I wrote for my school’s newspaper as an opinion columnist, writing articles about access to healthcare in the Latinx community, as well as for low-income and chronically ill students.

I currently work as a paralegal for the Boston Public Health Commission, and I’m hoping to attend law school in the near future to study health law. But until then, I’ve really enjoyed having the free time from school to return to my first love, and I see my current manuscript as a love letter to the low-income and chronically ill members of the Latinx community.

Can you share details about your heritage and how it has influenced your writing?

I was raised in a Puerto Rican household, and many of my peers and community members were also Puerto Rican. Growing up, most of the books for young adults and most of the books I read centered on white characters. I never questioned this or thought it was weird until I went to college.

Suddenly, I was one of the only Latinx students, and sometimes one of the only BIPOC students in my classes. It was the first time in my life that I felt “other.” During this time, I realized I couldn’t passively absorb my Boricua culture through hearing the language or eating the food like I could back home. It was something I had to make an effort to keep alive.

It was also in college that I reconnected with my Mexican heritage, which I had to teach myself, having not grown up with my father, who is from Mexico. I’m still learning what it means to be Mexican, and I still feel I don’t fully understand the Chicano experience in America, but it has been such an honor to learn more about it and shape my own identity as a Chicana.

Going through this complex understanding of my identity during college inspired me to write for the first time, a story about a character who looked like me. Now, I can’t imagine writing a story that doesn’t center on a Latinx character or speak to that experience.

Do you have any favorite books that have particularly resonated with you? How have they shaped your perspective as a writer?

So many. Too many to name. I came of age during the fervor for dystopian literature, so I really love The Giver by Lois Lowry and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. But most of my favorite books are standalone young adult novels across various genres that resonated with me at different stages of my adolescence, such as Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been reading as many Latinx fiction novels as I can, and some of my favorites have been Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp, Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez, and Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio.

My favorite books have influenced my perspective as a writer in various ways. They taught me what makes a compelling plot, how to build tension, and how to create a lead character who remains in your head and in your heart long after you’ve turned the final page.

How did you learn about the Associates of the Boston Public Library's Writer-in-Residence program, and what inspired you to apply?

When I first moved to Boston, one of the first things I did was apply for a library card. Back home in Orlando, the library was a second home to me, so I knew I had to connect with the Boston Public Library somehow. I was on the BPL website one day, placing books on hold to pick up, when I stumbled across the Associates of the Boston Public Library’s Writer-in-Residence program. By that point, I had a completed but very, very rough draft of my first manuscript. I had just recently been accepted into the Las Musas Mentorship program for unpublished Latinx writers and was feeling emboldened to apply for the residency.

What are you hoping to learn and achieve through this residency? How do you envision the Associates of the Boston Public Library supporting your journey? 

I feel very blessed to have been selected as the 2024-25 Writer-in-Residence for the Associates of the Boston Public Library. I know I won’t take this opportunity for granted, and I look forward to learning more about my characters, what their motivations are, and what their final journey will look like. I am also very excited to have a space of my own where I can sit with my little matcha latte, the windows letting in cool fall air, open my laptop, and write down the words that have lived in my brain for so long. I already feel incredibly supported by the Associates, who have been so kind and open to me. I couldn’t imagine a more supportive organization that believes in the same mission of bringing more diverse stories to bookshelves. I am hopeful that by the time my residency ends, I will be ready to query literary agents and ultimately put my book out for submission and then into the world!

What advice do you have for aspiring writers who are looking to explore and celebrate their heritage in their creative work?

I know that as BIPOC creatives, it can feel like we are representing our entire community, and that can sometimes feel like both a great privilege and an insurmountable burden. I would say try to look past those pressures and focus on telling a story that is true to you, not one that you believe has to align with the popular narrative. Your voice is important, and it’s needed. I would also suggest seeking out a community of writers and people in the industry who share the mission of uplifting diverse viewpoints. Additionally, remember that rejection is normal in this industry, but it doesn’t detract from who you are or the importance of the story you are telling.

We look forward to hearing Yssis read from her completed manuscript at the 2025 Writer-in-Residence Reading and Reception held by the Associates of the Boston Public Library. For more information on the program and the 2025-26 application details, please visit www.Writer-in-Residence.org.