Salvador Plascencia

This 28-year-old native Spanish speaker exploded onto the literary scene this past summer with his wildly experimental debut, The People of Paper. Plascencia has been hailed as a "once-in-a-generation talent," which must be sweet revenge for an author whose novel, before being picked up by McSweeney's, was initially rejected by — his word — "everyone." -Larissa N. Dooley