And a lovely time was had by all.

Marjorie Agosin, my dear friend and wonderful writer and activist, came and went in a whirl of motion and words. She arrived at the airport Monday afternoon, and we sounded like schoolgirls, hugging and squealing with joy at seeing each other again.

I am always surprised when I see Marjorie again, because in my mind, I remember her as taller. She is tiny, in reality, but she's such a larger-than-life mind and presence that my mind plays the trick on me of remembering her as only slightly shorter than I am.

I had cleared everything else off my calendar for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, in order to drive her around and take care of her and enjoy her company. So, in between all the events and interviews on her itinerary, on the city streets and the highway to and from Lawrence, Kansas, we talked and talked. We talked about mutual friends, about Macondo, about teaching, about how necessary it is to be optimistic and have hope if you are to remain an activist in this world, about our children and husbands (we are both extraordinarily lucky there!), about the Midwest, about Chile, about Kansas City and Wellesley as places to live, about politics, about culture and identity, but above all, always and over and over about writing. I am exhausted from all the events and driving, but so energized for all my writing projects. Talking with Marjorie is like plugging into a battery of creativity!

At her first major event, a talk and reading at the downtown branch of the Kansas City Public Library after a reception featuring Chilean sea bass in honor of Marjorie, we had a full house in the stately Helzberg Auditorium, and Marjorie kept the audience mesmerized. Afterward, the Q&A went on and on until I finally had to cut it off to allow time for book signing and a dinner with the Latino Writers Collective and some of our friends and supporters afterward. The diverse audience drew from various neighborhoods of the greater Kansas City metropolitan area with people from the inner city to some from the wealthiest suburbs. Yet they made an emotional community, drawn together by Marjorie's openness and her stories and poetry. They stayed late, talking with Marjorie and each other afterward and making connections they might never have made otherwise.

The next morning was full of interviews, and then we were off to the University of Kansas in Lawrence. First on the schedule was a discussion with graduate students from creative writing and Spanish/Latin American studies. This was a great group of students with incisive questions and discussion. Marjorie was as generous as she always is and connected some with academics who were doing research in their fields of interest. She even advised a young novelist on how to market his manuscript.

After a lovely dinner with some of the department chairs who made her visit to KU possible, we went to the KU Student Union to another stately room for another mesmerizing talk and reading by Marjorie, followed by more curious questions and a book signing. It was stimulating and great, but tiring--and was followed by the hour-long drive back to KC.

On Wednesday, it was so sad to say good-bye at the airport and know it will be months until we see each other at AWP. But what a gift this visit from one of our time's most gifted and remarkable women was--for all of us!


... And then, straight from the airport to Avila University to take part in a Latino Writers Collective reading. But that's a story for tomorrow.

Honored by the UN and winner of numerous major writing awards, Jewish Chilean activist/writer comes to Kansas City Oct. 4

My dear friend, poet, novelist, memoirist, and human rights activist Marjorie Agosin will speak at the Kansas City Public Library Central Branch, 14 W. 10^th on Monday, October 4^th at 6:30 p.m. (with a reception preceding at 6:00 p.m.)

I’d like to urge you to put this on your calendar and attend. Marjorie is a wonderful, moving speaker. She will be speaking about her life as a writer and activist and as a Jewish Chilean who had to flee Chile as a teenager for life in America.

I’ve listed just a very few of Marjorie’s 30+ published (and many award-winning) books below. She has won awards for poetry, fiction, memoir, and for her scholarly work, which ranges across the fields of women’s studies, Latina literature, Latin American studies, Jewish studies, and human rights. Take a look at Amazon for more (even Amazon doesn’t have all of them).

The Light of Desire: La Luz del Deseo

Of Earth and Sea: A Chilean Memoir

Among the Angels of Memory (a book about her grandmother fleeing the Holocaust for Chile)

Alphabet in My Hands: A Writing Life

Secrets in the Sand: The Young Women of Juarez

Dear Anne Frank ( a stunning poetic dialogue/response to Anne Frank)

Brujas y algo mas: Witches and Other Things

Always From Somewhere Else (memoir of her father)

Toward the Splendid City

Scraps of Life: Chilean Arpilleras

A Cross and A Star (memoir of her mother’s life as a girl in Chile during World War II)

Circles Of Madness: Mothers Of The Plaza De Mayo

Tapestries Of Hope, Threads Of Love (the life of women under the Pinocet dictatorship)

Of Earth and Sea: A Chilean Memoir just won the International Latino Book Award for biography. The award committee had this to say about the book: "The Chilean coup d'état of 1973 was a watershed event in the history of Chile. It was also a defining moment in the life of writer Marjorie Agosín. This collection of prose vignettes and free verse draws upon her experiences as a child in Chile, an expatriate abroad, and a minority Jew—even in the land she calls home—to create a striking portrait of a life of exile. The tone of the book varies as it lyrically explores the geography of Chile and weaves into it the themes of exile and oppression. At times the words become hymns to the physical beauty of her country, evoking the grandeur of this land extending to the southernmost tip of the world. At times they are intimate and melancholy, exploring personal and familial history through miniature portraits that reveal the pain of being different. Finally the tone becomes angry as she denounces the injustices committed against her friends and against the families of the disappeared during the seventeen-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Combining themes of memory, childhood, minority issues, Judaism, and political oppression, this collection contains some of Agosín’s strongest work. Of Earth and Sea is a poetic autobiography that explores the world of Chile with eyes that see both despair and hope. "

I’ve posted the Library’s announcement with RSVP link below:

Marjorie Agosín - Of Earth and Sea: A Chilean Memoir

Monday, October 4, 2010

6:30pm @ Central Library

RSVP now!

The Chilean coup d'état of 1973 was a watershed event in the history of Chile. It was also a defining moment in the life of writer Marjorie Agosín. In Of Earth and Sea, she draws upon her experiences as a child in Chile, an expatriate abroad, and a minority Jew—even in the land she calls home—to create a striking portrait of a life of exile. Agosín is a professor of Spanish at Wellesley College. Her appearance is co-sponsored by the Latino Writers Collective as part of the Library's observance of Hispanic Heritage Month. The book will be available for sale.

Marjorie will also appear at KU on October 5^th at 7:00 p.m. in the Centennial Room of the Kansas Union. This event is co-sponsored by KU’s Departments of English, Spanish and Portuguese, Latin American Studies, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

I hope you’ll take advantage of one of these opportunities to hear and meet one of the remarkable women of our time.