Rene Pérez is a Texas author whose first collection of short stories, “Along These Highways,” was published by Bilingual Review Press in 2012. A keen observer of life in urban and rural Texas, he has created a fictional world based on his experiences growing up in Corpus Cristi and living in Austin. In the story “Closeness To Taste” a disturbed pizza worker at a fictional pizza parlor endeavors to share himself with the world.