Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.
~ Frederick Douglass

Authors Speak

This Succeed and Soar series invites writers to answer questions about their artforms and special inspirations.

Welcome Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa.

Photograph [c] 2017 LaToya Ruby Frazier
Sandra at Homewood Branch,
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Ms. Llanos-Figueroa, what phrase inspires your writing and life?

“Write what should not be forgotten.” Isabel Allende

How have Allende’s words helped your writing, your life?

I write historical fiction about 19th century plantation society in Puerto Rico because I could never find myself in the stories I was given to read. I wanted to give the people in my life faces and voices that were denied to them in this society. I wanted to substitute authenticity and truth for the stereotype and caricature that were projected in the media. Silence and erasure are forms of genocide. I hope that my work opens the door and presents a clear and present image of the diversity that is the fabric of America.

How these words inspired Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s book Daughters of the Stone.

Daughters of the Stone, the first book in the series, follows the lives of enslaved Africans from the perspective of five generations of Afro-Puerto Rican women. Their journey begins with capture in West Africa, to life in plantation society Puerto Rico, to immigration to urban America.

Sample Text:

These are the stories. My stories, their stories — just as they were told to my mother and her mother and hers. They were given to me for safekeeping and now I give them to you.

Amazon Review

Daughters of the Stone is available at Bookshop.org , local independent bookstores and major online book retailers.

Meet the Author

Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa writes historical fiction about the Afro-Puerto Rican experience from capture in West Africa to life in 19^th century plantation society in Puerto Rico to urban New York City. Daughters of the Stone and A Woman of Endurance are her first two published novels..