![\"Book](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/BONIFACIO-Cover-High-Res.jpg\")
Dr. Ayendy Bonifacio will celebrate the release of his novel “Bless Me, Papi” with a book launch from 4 to 5:20 p.m. Oct. 1 in Carlson Library Room 1005.<\/p><\/div>\n
Named one of Kirkus Reviews’ 20 Best August Books for Young Readers, “Bless Me, Papi” follows a young Dominican American boy in Brooklyn, called only mijo by his family, who has just lost his father to brain cancer. In his grief, he begins to see his father in the form of a pigeon and a ghost, acting as protector and advisor. His search for the truth behind those appearances takes him through the streets of Brooklyn and into the hills of the Dominican Republic, where he must decide whether he can bear to let his father go.<\/p>\n
The story grew out of Bonifacio’s own loss. He wrote the novel after his father died of brain cancer.<\/p>\n
“I wrote ‘Bless Me, Papi’ during a time of great grief and confusion,” Bonifacio said. “Writing is often the place I go to explore and, at times, take a break from grief. So I turned to the page.<\/p>\n
“To me, my father’s death felt like magical realism. It was something that had really happened, yet it also felt fantastical and out of this world. The book was born out of that feeling \u2014 that strange overlap between the real and the unreal.”<\/p>\n
Bonifacio said the book is for anyone trying to make sense of death and grief, and for readers who simply love a good family story. “It’s also for anyone who enjoys coming-of-age stories about family,” he said.<\/p>\n
A Dominican American writer, poet and scholar, Bonifacio explores memory, migration, race and the legacies of colonialism in the Americas. He is also the author of “Dique Dominican” and “To the River, We Are Migrants: Poems\/Poemas,” and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate and the Los Angeles Review of Books. His second poetry collection, “R\u00edos Are for Chivos and Eternity,” will be released in August 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. Ayendy Bonifacio will read from his coming-of-age novel about a Dominican American boy grieving his father, followed by a Q&A and book signing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":878,"featured_media":101171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,498,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101169"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101173,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101169\/revisions\/101173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Ayendy-BOOK-SIDE-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>