Soñia Rivera-Valdés was born in Cuba. Her book, “The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda,” was awarded the prestigious Casa de las Américas Award in Havana in 1997. She has published short stories in the Untied States, Latin America and Europe. She currently resides in New York where she also teaches. For Latinopia, she reads from her latest collection of short stories, “Stories of Little Women & Grown-Up Girls.”