The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2025 Winter Literature Grant to Jesse Rodríguez Dávila for his upcoming Debut Novel, “El Jardín”

Jesse Rodríguez Dávila is a Mexican- American writer and public high school teacher from Brooklyn, New York. Jesse received his MFA in Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is currently a participant in the One Story Writing Circle working on his first novel

”El Jardín” is a multi-point of view novel in stories. The novel follows the Escudero family and is set in New York City and Mexico. There are three sections plus vignettes in between. Each section is 2-3 short stories about the Mexican American experience, 1st generation vs 2nd generation immigrant experience in the US, depression, substance abuse, imaginary friends, loss of childhood innocence, shedding machismo culture, and complicated family relationships.

Please visit Jesse’s Instagram for more information.