New Mexico author explores resilience, trauma and rural life in debut story collection

Grace Spulak has spent her life listening to stories—first her own, then those of children and families she represented as an attorney across rural New Mexico. In her debut book, “Magdalena Is Brighter Than You Think”, Spulak turns those experiences into a powerful collection of fictional stories that examine poverty, queerness, violence and survival in the state she calls home.

Spulak, a New Mexico native who grew up in Valencia County, spends significant time in Socorro County. An author and attorney, she describes the book as an exploration of how people build resilience and community in “strange and unexpected ways,” particularly in rural settings.

The collection includes 11 short stories spanning roughly 200 pages. While fictional, the narratives draw heavily from Spulak’s lived experience growing up impoverished in New Mexico, her personal encounters with trauma and her professional work representing children and young people in the court system.

“These stories come from my experiences of violence and trauma, and from working with kids who have experienced those same things,” Spulak said. “I was really interested in how stories can help us survive—and also how stories and systems can fail us when we’re trying to make sense of what’s happened to us.”

The book is set in and around the Magdalena area, though Spulak notes the events themselves are not based on real incidents from the community. Instead, she chose the setting for what it represents to her.

“Magdalena is a place where I really felt the power of the landscape,” she said. “At first glance, it can feel harsh, but life finds ways to survive and thrive here. I wanted the story to capture that  same kind of resilience.”

The story is told from the perspective of a teenage girl whose mother and brother have been murdered by her father. Living with an unreliable grandmother, the narrator forms a bond with a foster boy who comes to stay in the home. As the two navigate grief, neglect and boredom during a summer in rural New Mexico, their actions set off a chain of events that draws them into the juvenile justice system.

At its core, Spulak said, the story—and the collection as a whole—examines how systems repeatedly fail vulnerable people.

“The foster care system, the juvenile justice system, these structures are supposed to protect people, but they often don’t,” she said. “So the characters try to create their own forms of care and community, sometimes with each other, sometimes with the land itself.”

Spulak has been writing since childhood, but this is her first published book. Most of the stories were written over the past five years, with a few dating back as far as seven years. She credits a low-residency MFA program at Wilson College with helping her shape the collection and approach the work with greater intention.

“I came to an MFA later in life, and I actually think that helped,” she said. “I had more life experience, more clarity about what I wanted to write, and more confidence in staying true to my vision.”

That commitment to authenticity is something Spulak emphasizes when speaking to young writers.

“We’re in a time where what’s considered commercially or politically acceptable is really narrowing,” she said. “I would encourage writers to stay true to the stories they feel called to tell. The world needs those stories—we need everyone’s stories.

For Spulak, the book represents both a personal milestone and a continuation of the work she’s been doing for years—bearing witness, asking hard questions and honoring the complicated lives of people in rural parts of the state.

“Stories matter,” she said. “They shape how we understand ourselves and each other. And sometimes, they’re how we survive.”

“Magdalena Is Brighter Than You Think” will be released in April. The book is currently available for preorder through independent bookstores, Bookshop.org and Amazon. Spulak said she hopes to hold local readings or signings after the release and encourages readers to support local bookstores when possible.