A Writer to Watch…
Photo Credit Rachael Warecki
Désirée Zamorano was born and raised in Lynwood, California, a small town nestled between Compton and Los Angeles. She always wanted to go to new places and try new things. At the age of three, she even set off, out of the yard, walking down the street, in search of adventure. A kind stranger brought her back to her overwrought mother.
As a child, she started writing a book about Noah’s Ark, from the perspective of the animals. Reading books was so magical to her, that she wanted to be part of that world. She had no understanding then of the work required, or, what drafts and revisions were.
Right before high school, her family moved to (then) monochromatic Fullerton. It was such a culture shock that Désirée took the GED to get out of another year. She remembers her high school counselor saying, “But you’ll never be able to call yourself a high school graduate.”
While she wanted to be a writer since she was a child, making her way into the literary world was quite a challenge. Like many others, she did not have an MFA, and was too busy teaching and getting credentials (touché counselor). She began writing short stories in her 20s, and once her daughter was born, she decided to lean completely into rejection with novels.
To Désirée — writing is making sense of the world and your thoughts about the whole experience. She wants her readers to see the wide, broad, and moving experiences of her demographic while at the same time being engaged and entertained. Creating something that never existed before is her favorite part of writing. Often people say, the best part is having written (A la Dorothy Parker), but for Des, the best part of writing is similar to that of reading: falling into a story and immersing oneself in another world. The writing you create takes on a life of its own. Sometimes, if she has used kernels of truth as seeds for scenes for events, the imagined story overwrites the original event in her memory, much to her family’s confusion.
She always managed to find the time to write, submit, and get something published. Each publication blew the embers of ambition into a blaze – and then, nothing. Carolyn See’s Making a Literary Life and Dagoberto Gilb’s Gritos inspired her to keep writing.
Looking ahead, after Dispossessed, Désirée has the re-release of The Amado Women on audiobook and the publication of a collection of short stories. Octavia Butler said, “If there’s any single talent a writer needs, it’s persistence.”
Désirée has been married for 35 years and raised two kids in the home where she’s been living for nearly 30 years. She loves to cook, try new recipes, cycling, tai chi, travel, and to hang out with family and friends. Traveling with family and friends is a high point. In between all that you can find her reading, writing, knitting, or watching bad TV.
“I love the novelty of the new, as well as the comfort of the familiar. Books make that possible,”
Désirée Zamorano
