About this episode

Chanel Cleeton discusses her writing process and her latest novel, exploring themes of Cuban-American identity and historical fiction.

New York Times bestselling author, Chanel Cleeton, spoke to me about her passion for exploring Cuban-American identity via women's perspectives throughout history, how she plots her popular historical fiction, and her latest novel THE CUBAN HEIRESS. Chanel Cleeton is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick Next Year in Havana, as well as instant New York Times bestsellers When We Left Cuba, and The Last Train to Key West. Her most recent historical fiction entry is The Cuban Heiress, described as a novel inspired by true events that “ … follows two women whose lives become intertwined during a fateful journey upon the S.S. Morro Castle—a luxury cruise liner that caught fire and sank on its way from Havana to New York in September 1934” Booklist wrote of the book, “Nothing is what it seems in Cleeton's latest gripping historical novel.... Handsome con men, clever thieves, desperate rebels, and our valiant heroines all convene on this elegant but doomed ocean liner. Cleeton includes vivid details about the mysterious final voyage of the Morro Castle and provides further reading about this historic disaster.” [Discover ⁠The Writer…

People in this episode

Host: Kelton Reid

Guest: Chanel Cleeton

Topics covered

• Cuban-American identity
• historical fiction
• women's perspectives
• plotting novels
• author interview

Keywords

• Chanel Cleeton
• historical fiction
• Cuban-American identity
• THE CUBAN HEIRESS
• author interview
• women's perspectives
• S.S. Morro Castle

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: THE CUBAN HEIRESS, Next Year in Havana, When We Left Cuba, The Last Train to Key West

Places: Cuba, New York

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