Rudy Ruiz is an American author, advocate and social entrepreneur. The son and grandson of Mexican immigrants, Rudy Ruiz was born in Brownsville, Texas and raised along the US-Mexico border, living in Matamoros, Mexico for extensive periods of time. He did not speak English until he entered school at the age of five. Once in school, he excelled and dreamt of growing up to be a writer, an entrepreneur, and a contributor to the wellbeing of immigrants and minorities, as well as to positive relations between diverse cultures and nations. He went on to earn a BA in Government, specializing in International Relations, at Harvard College. He then earned a Masters in Public Policy specializing in International Trade & Finance at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Rudy Ruiz is a writer of literary fiction, essays and political commentary. His earliest works were published at Harvard, where he studied literature and creative writing, and was awarded a Ford Foundation grant to support his writing endeavors.
Seven for the Revolution was Ruiz’s fiction debut. The collection of short stories won four International Latino Book Awards. Since then, Ruiz’s short fiction has appeared in literary journals including BorderSenses, The Ninth Letter, New Texas, and the Notre Dame Review. In 2017, Rudy Ruiz was awarded the Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction. In 2020, Ruiz was a Finalist for both the Texas Institute of Letters’ Best Short Story Award as well as the Texas Observer’s annual Short Story Contest. Ruiz’s short story, “Allegiance,” was published in the Dillydoun Review International Fiction Prize Anthology.
In 2020, Blackstone Publishing released Ruiz’s novel, The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez. The novel was named one of the “Top 10 Best First Novels of 2020” by the American Library Association’s Booklist. It also received two Gold Medals at the International Latino Book Awards, including the Rudolfo Anaya Prize for Best Latino-Focused Fiction Book and Best Audio Book, and was a Finalist for the Spur Award.
In 2022, Ruiz’s second novel, Valley of Shadows, was published. It was named one of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 by LitHub’s Crime Reads and received the Texas Institute of Letters’ Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction.
In 2024, Ruiz’s border Bildungsroman, The Border Between Us, was released to critical acclaim. Following the novel’s release, he was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, awarded to “an author of national consequence.”
Rudy Ruiz is a member of PEN America, Writer’s League of Texas, International Society of Latino Authors, and Harvardwood. In 2024, he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.