Latino Writers Collective Tercera Página Reading Series Presents Gloria Vando March 27

For the third year, the Latino Writers Collective brings to Kansas Citians local and national Latino writers in the Tercera Página (Third Page) Reading Series, which offers four events in 2009. The second event in the series will take place at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 2009.

Reading from her work will be nationally known, award-winning poet, Gloria Vando, a Los Angeles resident who has longtime roots in Kansas City. Vando’s most recent book of poems, Shadows and Supposes, won the 2003 Best Poetry Book of the Year Award from the Latino Literary Hall of Fame and the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has won numerous other awards and fellowships. She reads her poem, “Fire,” on the 2007 Grammy-nominated CD collection, Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work, 1888-2006 (which features Tennyson, Browning, Walt Whitman, who were recorded by Edison when he invented the phonograph). A Puerto Rican born in New York City, Vando has had her poems adapted for the stage and presented at Lincoln Center and Off-Broadway. She is publisher and editor of Helicon Nine Editions, a small press she founded 30 years ago and for which she received the Kansas Governors Arts Award. In 1992, she and her husband, Bill Hickok, founded The Writers Place, a literary center in Kansas City, where they lived for many years. They now live in L.A.

Also reading will be Latino Writers Collective members, Carlos Duarte, Ignacio Carvajal, Miguel Morales, and Sofiana Olivera. The event will also feature the music of Melek Ta’us. RSVP to llrodriguez@sbcglobal.net or 816-333-6349.

Next in the series will be nationally acclaimed author Sandra Cisneros at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St., for a reception, reading, and book signing. To be assured a seat, RSVP soon to llrodriguez@sbcglobal.net or 816-333-6349 for this event which is expected to reach capacity early and be closed to reservations.

The series finale will feature Latino Writers Collective members Juanita Salazar Lamb, Jason Biggers, Natalie Olmsted, and Xánath Caraza reading at the launch of the Latino Writers Collective fiction anthology, Cuentos del Centro: Stories From the Latino Heartland at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 15, at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania. RSVP to llrodriguez@sbcglobal.net or 816-333-6349.

The series is co-sponsored by BkMk Press, Guadalupe Centers, Inc., Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City Hispanic News, the Kansas Department of Hispanic and Latino Affairs, Longview Community College, Mattie Rhodes Latino Cultural Arts Division, New Letters, Park University, UMKC College of Arts & Sciences, UMKC Multicultural Student Affairs, and The Writers Place.