Kayla Maiuri

Oct 3, 2024 | bombmagazine.org | Kayla Maiuri

“You can have one, if you want,” her mother says, pointing her chin to the outdoor fridge. “I won’t tell.”Mabel is thirteen and three-quarters in a lime-green one-piece, a pair of goggles tangled in her bangs. It’s a buggy night in mid-June, the two of them home alone. They’re adrift in the deep end, lazing on matching red tubes. “What if Dad finds out?” she asks, to which her mother snorts and swipes a mosquito from her cheek. “Where is he?

Feb 25, 2024 | sandiegouniontribune.com | Kayla Maiuri |Sarah Ruiz-Grossman

In her bracing debut novel, “A Fire So Wild,” Sarah Ruiz-Grossman chronicles a community in Berkeley, California, on the brink of personal and environmental calamity as a wildfire threatens life as they know it. The story follows a diverse cast, each character navigating his or her own private crises, be they marital, economic or existential. We open with Abigail, an out-of-touch affordable housing advocate nearing her 50th birthday, contemplating her career during a morning swim in Lake Anza.