Norman Antonio Zelaya
Orlando and Other Stories

​A rapidly gentrifying Mission neighborhood is the canvas for these linked stories about a Nica-American special education teacher scraping by in the Bay Area. 

Tonio grew up in the Mission area of San Francisco when it was still working class, but now feels like one of the few real people amidst a wave of yuppie gentrification. He has an on again, off again relationship with a lawyer named Mellie that has recently turned serious, and their flirtatious banter, and dialogue in general, is one of Zelaya's strong writing talents. 

Over the course of the seven linked stories, Tonio grapples with the stress of being a Special Education teacher with too much student debt in a very expensive metro area, but also trying to make things work with Mellie and being a good uncle to his two nephews in Oakley. The very last tale, Orlando, features a gloriously detailed trip to Nicaragua and bursts of code-switching with lots of Nicaraguan Spanish, before turning unexpectedly tragic. 

Powerful stories about a Nicaraguan-American teacher in San Francisco that seeks love and fulfillment but too often finds neither. 

Norman Antonio Zelaya was born and raised in San Francisco. He has published stories in ZYZZYVA, NY Tyrant, 14 Hills, Cipactli, and Apogee Journal, among others, and he was a 2015 Zoetrope: All-Story finalist. Zelaya has appeared on stage, in film and in the squared circle as luchador “Super Pulga.” Currently, he lives and works in San Francisco’s Mission District as a special education teacher. Orlando & Other Stories is his first published book.

Orlando and Other Stories is publication by the Pochino Press. Click here to purchase.

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Reviewed by
Elliott Turner​
​3/9/2019

Elliott Turner is the author of The Night of the Virgin, one of "the top ten fiction books of 2017" according to TheLatinoAuthor.com. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Atticus Reviews, VICE, Fusion, SplitLip Mag, and Transect Magazine.

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