AWP Recap—Part Two

Thursday night at AWP in Chicago, I was a co-host of Ragdale @ AWP, a reception for Ragdale alumni. This was held in the penthouse (22^nd floor) of the Cliff Dwellers, on Michigan Avenue facing the lake. Here are some photos of the spectacular view out the windows and from the huge terrace outside the penthouse. Thanks to Mario Duarte and Miguel Morales for these photos.

 

One of my dear friends, José Faus, stands on the terrace outside the penthouse to enjoy the view. I was fortunate to be able to invite a number of friends who are fine writers to meet the wonderful Ragdale staff. I hope all of them will apply for a Ragdale residency. I know most of them will. And I had the added pleasure of introducing people I love to one another. This was a joyous occasion, bringing people I love together with Ragdale, which I love.

 Another of my beloved organizations, Macondo, had a fantastic session featuring the incredible Dagoberto Gilb (pictured here) and Luis J. Rodriguez in a creative dialogue moderated by John Santos.

Since Luis and I were the only ones to staff our table, I had to remain in the book fair so that he could make this great session. We've decided that, at the next AWP, we will ask some other people to make commitments to help us with the book fair.

We had book signings all afternoon beginning with Michael Warr and ending with Gloria Vando. Unfortunately, I don't have photos of those. They were quite popular, and we sold books, which is the purpose of such things. Our authors had a lot of fun with them, too.

Right after the book fair closed, I hurried down Michigan Avenue to Columbia College to give a joint Latino Writers Collective-Proyecto Latina reading. Here is Diana Pando, one of the Proyecto Latina masterminds, reading with the rest of the readers in the background.

We had a receptive audience of approximately 30 men and women, which surprised me since we were competing with dozens of other AWP offsite readings. The audience was illustrious with

Francisco Alarçon, Odilia Gálván Rodríguez, Diana Garcia, Carlos Cúmpian, and many other powerful writers. The material read, poetry and fiction, was strong, humorous, and dramatic, and afterward everyone enjoyed visiting with friends not seen for a long time.

Saturday morning, Ben and I had breakfast with Francisco Aragón and Luis before Ben left for the BkMk table and Luis and I headed back to the Tia Chucha/Scapegoat table.

On Saturday, the general public is allowed into the book fair, and it became truly hectic. By this time, I was losing my voice, and I had a panel coming up at 3:00 with other members of the Latino Writers Collective to discuss our writing workshops with the children of migrant workers. I'd been sucking on cough drops earlier, but Saturday I survived on herbal cough drops.

Here is part of our panel, right to left, José Faus, Miguel Morales, and me. Not shown in this photo, Gabriela N. Lemmons.

This panel is concerned with a central project that the LWC is involved with. The work we've done with these children of migrant workers has been emotional, draining, and satisfying since our first session with them. During our meeting back in Kansas City to prepare for the panel, we swore to each other that we wouldn't cry at the AWP, even though the stories and memories always throw us into tears. As we explained the program and the impact it had on these kids, as well as their great need, we each at one time or another broke our promise, but the audience cried also.

It was the next to the last session on a day when many attendees have already left, so it was a small audience--but such a passionate and involved audience! We felt grateful to be able to have a discussion with such attentive people.

I had to apologize since my voice was mostly gone--from three solid days of speaking to thousands of people a day in the book fair, I thought. This panel brought one more reward for me. Joy Castro and I have been communicating on Twitter and by email but had never met in person. Joy had shown up at the book fair on Friday, and we met. Now, she came to our panel, and Mario Duarte caught a photo of us together.

And that's an appropriate place to end. We left after the panel, and the great joy of AWP, as always, was seeing so many dear friends, most of whom were not photographed. Deborah Miranda, Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhran, Susan Deer Cloud, Ruth Behar, Allison Hedge Coke, Travis Hedge Coke, Susan Page Tillett, Regin Igloria, Eduardo Corral, Richard Blanco, Sherwin Bitsui, Maria Melendez, Alice Friman, Marilyn Kallett, Robin Becker, Judith Podell, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Charles Rice-Gonzalez, Ching-In Chen, and many others. For some of us, far-flung across the states, AWP is the one time we get together. And it's what I always look forward to the most. My one regret this time was not having a chance to attend anyone's panels. Next year, we'll fix that, though. So good-bye , my friends, it's email, Facebook, and Twitter until we meet at the next AWP again. Next year in Boston!

AWP Recap--Part One

I got back from the AWP late Monday, but I came back sick and got sicker once home. So I haven’t managed to dig through all the email and mail and haven’t put up a blog post. Since I’ve received many photos from AWP, I thought I'd put up a little illustrated recap (which will take two days and blog posts). Then, on Monday, I will review Fred Arroyo’s new book of short fiction for the Books of Interest by Writers of Color series, getting back on track.

We got into Chicago late Wednesday afternoon and checked into the Hilton, picked up our registration for the conference, and began setting up the book tables. Ben had the two BkMk and New Letters tables to set up. My publisher and book table partner, Luis J. Rodriguez, and I set up the combined Tia Chucha Press/ Scapegoat Press table.

Here, my friend and publisher, Luis J. Rodriguez, and I sit down at the finished Tia Chucha Press/Scapegoat Press table. Once the AWP authorities chased us out of the book fair, we left for a nearby restaurant, Rhapsody, for the 25^th anniversary dinner of Tia Chucha Press authors. 

 

It was great to see old friends like Carlos Cumpian and LJR and to meet new ones such as Michael Warr, Patricia Smith, Patricia Spears Jones, Dwight Okita, and Luivette Resto. We had lots of fun and carried on until late. HIGHLIGHT: Patricia Spears Jones giving a “reading” of the rather pretentious dessert menu that had us in stitches. I have got to attend one of this woman’s poetry readings!

Here I am with Patricia Spears Jones, lovely NYC poet.

Next morning, the conference was on and the book fair opened. I was excited because we were displaying our newest Scapegoat Press book, Woven Voices: 3 Generations for Puertorriqueñas Look at their American Lives. I edited this anthology and am very proud of it. There’s really no book like this out there on the market.

The gorgeous cover got lots of attention from passersby, and a surprising number stopped and let me tell them about this unique book, which is a conversation in poetry among three members of a gifted Puerto Rican family—grandmother Anita Vélez-Mitchell, mother Gloria Vando, daughter Anika Paris. The book began to sell steadily, reviewers asked for copies, and I was a happy camper--even though I was missing all the conference panels.

I missed all the panels I wanted to go to because I was caught at the book table. I didn't make a panel until my own on the last day. 

There was a Celebration of Tia Chucha Press, my publisher.

Here’s Luivette (“I live in LA, but I’m from New York”) Resto after the Celebration of Tia Chucha Press.

 

My friend Francisco Alarçon was on a number of panels I would love to have attended but had to miss.

Still, thousands of people came through the book fair, and I had a chance to talk with many of them. Such a wild variety of people! What a feast of character for a novelist! Of course, it helps that I believe so strongly in all the books I was selling, both Scapegoat's and Tia Chucha's.

Thursday ended with Luis coming to take my place so I could hurry over to the Ragdale reception where I was a co-host. I'll post photos from that and the rest of the conference tomorrow.

Catching Up—Las Comadres, AWP, Woven Voices

Las Comadres is a 25-year-old national organization that brings Latinas together through email, teleconferences, and in person to engage in dialogues around culture and other aspects of life. They have a national series of teleconferences in which their members all around the nation discuss books they've read with their authors--Las Comadres Conversations With...   

And Every Last Secret has been selected for one of these conversations in May!

This is a real honor, and I’m very excited. This is a great organization that's doing such essential work in many ways, but especially promoting reading and literature this way. So I’m really looking forward to my teleconference with these bright, inquiring Latina minds!

Right now, I’m getting ready to head to the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) national conference for a crazy, hectic week. I’ll be co-hosting the Ragdale reception on Thursday evening at the Cliff Dwellers, and I hope to read at the Guild Complex/Tia Chucha Press reading afterward—if I’m not too physically worn out by then. Then, on Friday night, I will read with the Latino Writers Collective and  Proyecto Latina at Columbia College Chicago in one of the off-site readings. With our great Chicago friends, the damas of Proyecto Latina, we hope to put a distinctive Midwestern spin on this national celebration of the written word.

I will also be on a panel with fellow Latino Writers Collective members on Saturday from 3:00-4:15 pm that will discuss our experiences with offering writing workshops to the children of migrant farm workers. This has been such a fruitful and satisfying project for the Collective, and the feedback says that we’ve really made a change in these young people’s lives. We’ll talk about how we started and how other groups could do something similar in their areas.

I will be working at the Tia Chucha Press/Scapegoat Press table (B12, like the vitamin) in the bookfair much of the time I’m at the conference. I’ll have ARCs of Every Last Secret with its gorgeous cover top show off to any of my friends who visit me.

 I hope everyone will also check out the dynamite new book I edited—Woven Voices: 3 Generations of Puertorriqueñas Look at their American Lives. This book braids a conversation of poetry among three very different but truly related poets, Anita Velez-Mitchell, grandmother and mother, Gloria Vando, mother and daughter, and Anika Paris, daughter and granddaughter.  

Ruth Behar, author of An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba says, “Woven Voices is like no other poetry book! Here is a gorgeous trio of poets, a grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter who share family ties, a common Puerto Rican history, and the twists and turns of a diasporic journey. Each speaking in her own unique voice, Anita, Gloria, and Anika write with honesty and tenderness about the big themes of home and mortality as well as about everyday lessons and losses. Read the poems together and separately and you'll find yourself singing along, entering a world of beauty and truth you didn't know existed.”

On Thursday here in the Literary Mystery Novelists series, you can read an interview with Rhys Bowen, author of two current mystery series plus an earlier one that have won many awards. An extra bonus if you’re jones-ing for a Downton Abbey fix—one series is set in that time period among Britain’s aristocracy.

Then, on Monday, we’ll return to the Books of Interest by Writers of Color series, and midweek I’ll try to post another installment of the series on Juggling the Two Jobs of Writing Novels and Promoting Books.

Books of Interest by Writers of Color—Luci Tapahonso, Gloria Vando, Kristin Naca

Luci Tapahonso, A Radiant Curve: Poems and Stories (University of Arizona Press) Tapahonso, Navajo, is originally from Shiprock, NM, where she grew up with Navajo as her first language. Now Professor of English at the University of Arizona in Tucson, she has published three children’s books and six books of poetry. Tapahonso initially writes in her first language, Diné, and then translates into English. Her later books are bilingual editions in Diné and English. Her work is rhythmic and sometimes mystical with a strong focus on women and family. It was with her book, Saánii Dahataal (the women are singing), that she began to win acclaim for her work. She has won many awards, including the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award for Poetry and the Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers, and has been featured in several PBS television documentaries. Her most recent book includes a CD with original songs and chants, as well as poetry.

Here is the link to her latest book. I encourage you to buy these books from the small and university presses that publish them. Without them, we would have few writers of color published, at all.

Gloria Vando Shadows & Supposes (Arte Público Press) Child of a highly accomplished artistic/political family of immigrants from Puerto Rico, Vando was born and educated in New York City. Her lushly imagistic work focuses on the isolation and alienation of the immigrant’s child, never truly at home or a real part of either homeland. She has received the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award; the Latino Literary Hall of Fame’s Poetry Book Award; the 2009 Poetry Award from El Instituto de Puerto Rico, NY; the first Kansas Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship; two Billee Murray Denny Prizes; a River Styx International Poetry Award; and many others. Her poems have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, and on the Grammy-nominated Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work 1888-2006. 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, for which she received the CLMP Editor’s Grant and the Governor’s Arts Award (KS). She is also a contributing editor to the North American Review. In 1992 she founded, with her husband, The Writers Place, a freestanding literary center and art gallery that is the heart of literary activity in Kansas City, MO.

Here is the link to her latest book.

Kristin Naca Bird Eating Bird (HarperCollins) Naca is a Filipina-Puerto Rican poet. Bird Eating Bird, her first book, uses English, Spanish, and even fragments of Tagalog to explore class, gender, and race in delicate, lyrical, yet powerful poems. This book won the National Poetry Series and an Honorable Mention in Poetry from the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Naca is a professor at Macalester College where she teaches Asian and Latino literature and creative writing. She is a fresh voice with a meticulous aesthetic and immense promise.

Here’s a link to her book. Harper’s is a big NY publisher, of course, but go ahead and get it from them. They’re one of the few big guys who sponsor a first book contest.

I’ve been spending much of this dangerous heat wave in coffee shops and libraries. My old house’s a/c can't handle heat over 100 degrees. In public venues, I don’t go online because I’ve been hacked that way before. So I’ve been online less. When this heat wave goes away, I will get back to my usual schedule.

Next week, Luis J. Rodriguez, Phong Nguyen, and Maria Melendez. Lots to look forward to.

Stay cool if you’re in this deadly heat wave. If you’re not, send cool thoughts to those of us who are.