The year 2024 has proven remarkable for Latinx and Latin American fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, featuring an extensive range of literary works that have exceeded all expectations.

Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology, edited by Rigoberto Gonzalez (Library of America, £30), is the first to encompass Latinx poetry from colonial to contemporary works. Featuring over 180 poets and an insightful introduction by Gonzalez, this collection showcases diverse voices, themes, languages, and stories. “‘Latino’ is a complex term with no single narrative. This anthology transcends stereotypes, reflecting the richness of Latino poetry,” writes Gonzalez. Highlights include poems by Ernesto Cardenal, Cecilia Vicuna, and Javier Zamora. In Zamora's poignant El Salvador, he expresses: “Tonight, how I wish/ you made it easier to love you, Salvador. Make it easier/ to never have to risk our lives.” 

An exceptional anthology.

Also on my list is The Thorn Of Your Name (Poetry Translation, £9) by Zapotec poet Victor Teran, beautifully translated by David Shook. In his poems, Teran, born in Juchitan, Oaxaca, often celebrates this city. In Juchitan, My Bride, he writes: "The arms of your peasants and fishermen/ are made of steel,/ the feet of your women, hummingbird wings./ Big Juchitan, small Juchitan:/ curlew that sings and dances in Zapotec,/ loving mother comforting her children,/ ancient son of the clouds, my grandfather.” 

This is a scintillating collection that includes love and politically charged poems.

Finally, Yaguarete White (University of Arizona Press, £19), by Latinx poet Diego Baez, was one of my favourite poetry books of the year. The book evokes Guarani mythology through personal narratives and migrant experiences, skilfully weaving a tapestry of cultural appreciation and diasporic resonances. Baez uses Paraguayan Guarani, Spanish, and English to create a multilayered poetic world where the jaguar reigns supreme in all its forms.

Charco Press, the leading UK publisher for Latin American voices in translation, has enjoyed a stellar year with widely acclaimed fiction. My top picks include Not a River (Charco, £11.99) by Argentine Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott. The novel captures a place and time that flow like the river itself. Almada weaves a vibrant narrative, blending the experiences of ordinary workers in Argentine Mesopotamia with rural women and their sons “never ready for tragedy.”

Also from Charco is Tidal Waters (Charco, £11.99) by Afro-Colombian writer Velia Vidal and translated by Annie McDermott. This is a short book about belonging, the strong links to the Afro-Colombian community of Choco, deep friendships, and the mysteries of both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean. Written as a series of letters to an unknown friend, Vidal weaves through a range of experiences that uncover her passion for literature, teaching young people, and her land, among other themes.

Explorers, Dreamers, and Thieves: Writers in the Archives of the British Museum (Charco, £11.99) is a collection of essays that challenges the museum’s official narrative. It is a collaboration between Latin American writers and British author Philippe Sands and assembled with the intention to decolonise the British Museum’s Latin American archives. The book features a poem by Rita Indiana, Juan Gabriel Vazquez’s journey through the Colombian jungle, letters from Gabriela Wiener, and a migrant’s dream by Selva Almada, among others.

Another notable work is Crooked Plow (Verso, £10.99), debut novel by Brazilian Itamar Vieira Junior, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. Translated by Johnny Lorenz, it explores the lives of two sisters, Bibiana and Belonisia, and their community in the floodplains of agua Negra. The story depicts wealthy landowners in Brazil who exploit their tenants without tilling the land themselves. 

Themes of exploitation, suffering, and discrimination pervade the narrative, underlying events in agua Negra.

And last, one of the best non-fiction books of 2024 is Liliana’s Invincible Summer (Bloomsbury, £10.99) by Pulitzer Prize winner Cristina Rivera Garza. The book examines the 1990 murder of her sister in Mexico City by her jealous ex-boyfriend, Angel Gonzalez Ramos. Rivera Garza chronicles Liliana’s short but vibrant life as a 20-year-old architecture student. 

The book addresses femicides and toxic patriarchy in Mexico, highlighting the state’s neglect of thousands of women affected by this escalating issue across the region.