Luis Jaramillo is an assistant professor of creative writing at the New School in New York City and the author of the short story collection The Doctor’s Wife. His first novel, The Witches of El Paso (Primero Sueño Press/Atria, Oct. 8), explores family secrets and the supernatural along the U.S.-Mexico border. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus calls the book “gripping and cinematic.” Jaramillo answered these questions via email, and the responses below have been edited for length and clarity.

The dreaded elevator pitch: What, briefly, is The Witches of El Paso about?

1As the novel begins, labor lawyer Marta is juggling work, motherhood, and the care of her very old great aunt, Nena, who claims she can talk to the dead. After a kitchen fire with strange origins, Nena begins to tell Marta the great secret of her life—that when she was 18, she was taken hundreds of years into the past, away from the El Paso of the 1940s to El Paso del Norte, where Nena falls deeply in love, becoming pregnant. A skeptical Marta is drawn into Nena’s quest to find the daughter she left in colonial Mexico. Along the way, Marta awakens to her own supernatural powers and the possibility of a world where the border between life and death is as porous as the border between countries.

Where and when did you write the book? Describe the scene for us.

I write in the early morning, sitting on my couch with my back against the armrest and my legs stretched in front of me. It’s a supremely lazy position, but one that provides maximum support for my body and spirit.

What was most challenging about writing The Witches of El Paso? And most rewarding?

I’ve come to accept that I’m a slow writer, that it takes a long time for the thing to take the right shape. It sucks to have to be patient. At the same time, I love having a project. There’s nothing better than playing around with language, trying to translate the language of the heart into prose. I also had such fun talking to relatives about El Paso and New Mexico, and I heard some wild stories, some of which I fit into the novel.

Will you be touring or doing events for the book this fall? Any you are especially looking forward to? Why?

I’ll have events in New York, Chapel Hill, El Paso, Austin, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland. My book launch will be at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn. New York raised me as a writer, and I’m really looking forward to celebrating the birth of this novel with friends and mentors who have helped me and this book. I’ve taught many students at the New School, and they’ve also been with me, teaching me about persistence and bravery.

What fall release(s) are you most eager to get your hands on?

I can’t wait to read Lena Valencia’s book of short stories, Mystery Lights. Graywolf is publishing a translation of Yuri Herrera’s Season of the Swamp, about Benito Juárez’s lost years in New Orleans. The great Abigail Thomas is publishing a memoir, Still Life at Eighty, that will be moving, funny, and full of wisdom.

Nina Palattella is the editorial assistant.