To read Patricia Engel is to be transported. Simply take the first line of her most recent novel, The Veins of the Ocean, and you'll understand: "The Rickenbacker Bridge suspended across Biscayne Bay was full of night fishermen leaning on the railings, catching up on gossip over beer and fishing lines, avoiding going home to their wives." Born to Colombian parents, Engel grew up in New Jersey and earned a master of fine arts at Florida International University, making her a transplant that not only stayed but also has made Miami's literary scene proud. The Veins of the Ocean won the 2017 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and she's also the author of It's Not Love, It's Just Paris and Vida. Most recently, though, it's her astounding Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship win that has the literary world kvelling. In her spare time (how, though?) she acts as the literary editor of the Miami Rail and is a writing professor at the University of Miami.