Casandra Hernández Ríos is deputy managing editor at The Offing. She received her MFA in Creative Writing, Fiction, from CSU Long Beach. She holds a BA in Creative Writing and Journalism from the same school. She is the former editor-in-chief of Riprap, CSULB’s literary journal. Casandra was recognized as an emerging writer at this year’s Literary Women’s Festival of Authors held in Long Beach. She teaches English at Golden West College and Journalism at East Los Angeles College.
What do you do at The Offing?
It’s hard to explain what I do without making it sound uninteresting. I help prepare, format, and post the pieces for publication on our site. I’m no HTML expert, but I’ve learned some coding in the process. What I do is visual, but requires some interpretation. I try my best to translate a work on to the space we have on our site. The reward is seeing that piece shared across platforms, knowing that The Offing opened the first door.
What doors does The Offing open for you?
The Offing welcomed me into a world where my aesthetics and passions could emerge from the shadows. I’ve always been a timid writer, afraid to be noticed or disregarded because my English has Spanish nuances. But not here. Here, I can be myself and I see myself in others.
Is there a piece you’ve worked on or found at The Offing that’s been especially meaningful to you?
I love working on Enumerate pieces because they require time and attention to detail, but also because I get to work with the department’s passionate editors. My favorite time is when East and West Coast meet to bring an Enumerate piece to life. I can feel the World Wide Web still in anticipation.