Contributor Interview: Sofía Carbonell Realme
- Sofía Carbonell Realme
- Dec 26, 2025
- 4 min read
Sofía Carbonell Realme's essay "Pearls in the Kitchen" appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of Broad Ripple Review.
What's your favorite punctuation and a literary hot take you have?
I love the em dash. It’s so— breathlessly—expressive, don’t you think? It also reminds me of Emily Dickinson.
Literary hot take: the 18th century is a skip.
What led you to submit “Pearls in the Kitchen” to a literary magazine versus a more academic one?
You know, I’ve never thought of this piece as an academic essay. It’s definitely more analytical than it is personal but an important part of the work it does (or strives to do) is to evoke and to render. I wanted to articulate my thoughts on the relationship between substance and style with clarity and exposition, but also with lyricism— as well as some playfulness and drama. If I’d approached it as an academic piece while writing, it would’ve been a very different essay. Because I viewed and wrote it in a literary light, it felt natural to submit to a literary magazine!
What topics do you think are most notable in writing right now?
As a medievalist, I’m afraid I'm not the most plugged-in literary citizen when it comes to contemporary writing. I happen to be TAing a course called “Literature Today” this fall, which has been interesting. We read Samantha Harvey’s Orbital and its indebtedness to the modernist novel has strengthened my suspicion that we’re still in the long 20th century—though that’s hardly a representative sample. AI seems inescapable, as a topic, as do cultural fault lines.
Have you ever dabbled in/considered writing fiction or poetry? Or do you prefer nonfiction? If so, why?
I do write fiction! In fact, I think of myself as a fiction writer first. I’ve always gravitated towards its longer forms, and I’ve been working on a novel for years now. Nonfiction is fun for me because it feels both freer and, at least in the way I’ve approached it so far, more immediately satisfying. Writing an essay feels akin to solving a puzzle or knitting a scarf. It requires time; you have to work your way through it, but at the end you’ve created/accomplished something self-contained. It also feels like a space in which I get to combine my diaristic voice and my academic voice. As someone who cannot turn off the close reading filter in my brain, it’s nice to blend the two registers. I have also dabbled in poetry, but not in a sustained way.
I saw that you’re originally from Mexico City. Would you say the city’s culture influenced your writing in any way?
Yes! The novel I’m working on is very much about Mexico City. I also like the idea that growing up there has given me an eclectic, perhaps even maximalist sensibility. This is a megacity we’re talking about. It literally contains multitudes. More than cosmopolitan, I think of it as a place full of elsewhere. Down the length of a single street, you can find the Italian Institute for Culture, a Middle Eastern pastry shop, and a café in a walled garden that makes you feel like you’ve wandered into a coastal town with its palm trees swaying over a thatched-roof terrace and baskets full of fresh produce. In “Pearls in the Kitchen” I bring up magical realism a couple of times. There’s something about this vein of the Latin American literary tradition that captures the spirit of place. So, it may be the case that it feels natural to me to reach for it, and think with it, because it’s so familiar.
Now that “Pearls in the Kitchen” has wrapped up, what’s next on the writing docket?
I’m currently working on an essay about origin stories and self-mythologizing that has to do with splitting one’s life between different cities. It’s organized around the motif of the sea. The essay features Boston and Barcelona, but my starting point was actually a single quote from Catherynne Valente’s retelling of the selkie myth, which I’ve been obsessed with for a long time. The maritime thread has taken some interesting and unexpected directions, and the essay is shaping up to be more personal than I thought it would be. Of course, (and I’m not just saying this because my advisors might read this) I am also—diligently—working on my dissertation.
Do you have any advice for upcoming writers looking to get their work published?
Look for publications that champion emerging writers and submit to those that seem like a good fit for your piece. Also, make sure to follow their submission guidelines! A little adherence to etiquette can go a long way.
About the Author
Sofía is a writer and English PhD candidate at Harvard University. While her academic work focuses on dress and the supernatural in medieval literature, her interest in the sartorial, the strange, and the glamorous ranges more broadly. She is originally from Mexico City.
About the Interviewer
Ollie Sikes (they/them) is an evolving queer writer, editor, and creator based in Dallas, TX. They completed a double BA in Creative Writing and Theatre at Butler University. Besides volunteering with Broad Ripple Review, they also serve as Content Creator for the little things literary magazine. Their poetry has been published with Synchronized Chaos. You can follow them on Instagram @ollie.sikes.
