Every Day is Magic: Ada Limón
In her 2015 collection, Bright Dead Things, a National Book Award finalist for poetry, Ada Limón writes of moving to Kentucky: “Confession: I did not want to live here.” It’s perhaps not a surprising sentiment coming from a coastally oriented person who was raised in Northern California, attended college in Seattle, and then spent over a decade in New York City.
But Limón and her husband, Lucas, have been in Lexington for seven years now and the effects of settling into this place are noticeable in her new book, The Carrying (Milkweed, Aug.). It’s a phenomenally lively and attentive collection replete with the trappings of living a little closer to nature. While Bright Dead Things is marked by a preponderance of light, such as images of fireflies and neon signs, The Carrying features numerous appearances by various trees, birds, and beetles. Limón also demonstrates a greater willingness to be explicit in naming colors, particularly green. “It’s crazy green, the whole book,” she says. “Lexington is the greenest place I’ve ever lived.” Similarly, where in Bright Dead Things, Limón tells a lot of stories and anecdotes, in The Carrying she is very present in her thoughts and experiences.
As it turns out, these shifts in focus have another, altogether unexpected source. While putting Bright Dead Things together, Limón was diagnosed with chronic vestibular neuronitis, which can cause bouts of vertigo. “If I’m really having vertigo, it’s pretty intense and I really have to focus,”
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Pioneering translation’s artistry
“My book ‘The Subversive Scribe: Translating Latin American Fiction’ (Graywolf Press, 1991, Dalkey Archive, 2009) by tracing the process of translating, explicitly shows readers how translation is a creative act and defines what a translator is, and why a translator needs to be linguist, literary critic and poet or novelist all in one,” said Levine, UC Santa Barbara distinguished professor emerita of Latin American literature. “Basically, our concepts of authorship and originality are inadequate to grasp what a translator does.”
Gabriel García Márquez’s last novel is published against his wishes
“Before his death almost 10 years ago, Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez had nearly completed his final book. Struggling with the ravages of dementia, he told his sons to rip it up and never publish it.
But they decided to go against his wishes and on Wednesday, on what would have been García Márquez’s 97 birthday, they are releasing the novel in Spanish. (The English version will be out on March 12.)…”
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1236246186/gabriel-garcia-marquez-novel-until-august-published
Compendium on Chicano poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera strikes gold
“For fans of Juan Felipe Herrera, the praise rings true — the famed Chicano writer and poet laureate is as versatile and experimental as he is resourceful and prolific. Despite his popularity and renown, however, an anthology of critical essays on the significance of his work had yet to exist.
To fill that void, UC Santa Barbara Professor Emeritus Francisco Lomelí and Osiris Aníbal Gómez, PhD ’20, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, co-edited a wide-ranging book on Herrera’s 50 year career. Their effort, “Juan Felipe Herrera: Migrant, Activist, Poet Laureate” (University of Arizona Press, 2023) recently won an International Latino Book Awards gold medal…”
https://news.ucsb.edu/2023/021277/compendium-chicano-poet-laureate-juan-felipe-herrera-strikes-gold
Hernan Diaz (writer)
“…Diaz was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. When he was two, his family moved to Sweden.[4] His family returned to Argentina after democracy was restored. After obtaining a BA in Literature (Licenciatura en Letras) in the University of Buenos Aires, he moved to London to study for an MA degree at King’s College.[5]
Diaz moved to New York in 1999. He received his PhD from New York University advised by Avital Ronell and Sylvia Molloy, and filed a dissertation on a topic that straddles comparative literature, Latin American literature, and philosophy.[6][7][8]…”
How a San Antonio Author is Using Fiction to Shed Light on Mexican American History
“…San Antonio author Rudy Ruiz knows there’s no rewriting history.
But in his latest novel, Valley of Shadows, he blends history, his own experience growing up near the border and plenty of fiction to look at what it might be like if certain events had turned out differently…”
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month from HRMorning
“…Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) starts on Sept. 15, the anniversary of the Cry of Dolores that began the Mexican War of Independence, and runs until Oct. 15. September 15 is the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18 respectively…”
https://www.hrmorning.com/news/hispanic-heritage-month/
Erika Sánchez
“Early life and education
Sánchez, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, is from Cicero, Illinois.[1] She has two brothers.[1] She grew up bilingual, speaking both Spanish and English.[2] She attended Morton East High School,[1] then the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she was Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude.[3] After college she traveled to Madrid, Spain to teach English with the Fulbright program and pursued poetry.[3] She then earned an MFA in poetry from the University of New Mexico.[4]
The Town That Inspired John Steinbeck Has A New Literary Star
“…Steinbeck might not be the No. 1 literary pride of Watsonville for long. Enter Jaime Cortez, whose debut short story collection, Gordo, is set in and around the Pajaro Valley town. Cortez’s book is an unforgettable portrait of the working-class Mexican Americans who lived there in the 1970s — including the charming misfit title character, who narrates most of the stories…”
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/16/1027521278/review-gordo-jaime-cortez
A Man of Letters New Scholarly book examines the work, legacy of writer Alejandro Morales
“…With the publication of his first book, “Caras Viejas y Vino Nuevo” in 1975, Alejandro Morales signaled the arrival of a bold, powerful voice in Chicano literature. Francisco Lomelí(link is external), a UC Santa Barbara professor emeritus of Chicana and Chicano studies who would later translate the book into English, called it a “highly experimental barrio novel that explored how an urban space devolves and gets mired in violence while experimenting with a story told backwards.”…”
National Poetry Month 2021: 5 Latinx Poets Who Build Community Through Art
“…Latinx identity is an incredible blend of movements, cultures, and language. It is also an identity that continues to face considerable challenges, including inhumane migration policies, and inaction by Congress, which continually threatens to defer the American Dream for the undocumented Latinx community.
But despite these inequalities, still they rise. One poet on our list arrived in the US in her mother’s belly, while another challenged the notion that one must provide “proof of citizenship” to create art. And thus, we celebrate the lives and experiences of these five Latinx poets, who use their poetry as artful protest, and bridge their multitudinous identities with mastery and courageous truth-telling…”
Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds
” A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity.”—Kirkus
Reviews, starred review Nepantla Familias brings together Mexican American narratives
that explore and negotiate the many permutations of living in between different worlds—how …”
Gabriela Garcia’s ‘Of Women And Salt’ Connects Two Mother-Daughter Stories
“We are force. This sentence threads through the winding stories of generations in the new book “Of Women And Salt.” It’s Gabriela Garcia’s debut novel examining the history of two families, one Cuban, one Salvadoran, who come to the U.S. at different times and under different circumstances. Gabriela Garcia joins me now to talk about her book. Hi there…”
Dispatches from the Border
Dispatches from the BorderLatino author and literary scholar Francisco Cantú to receive the 16th annual Luis Leal literature Award
Thursday, January 30, 2020 – 08:00
Santa Barbara, CA
Francisco Cantú, an award-winning author and translator, will receive UC Santa Barbara’s 16th annual Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature.
Rushdie creates modern Don Quixote for tale of love, family
“…Good news! You don’t have to read Cervantes’ masterwork to enjoy Salman Rushdie’s modern reinvention. You’ll probably pick up on hundreds of additional references and inside jokes if you have, but Rushdie has created something that feels wholly original even if you’ve never heard of the hopelessly romantic Spanish knight-errant who sees danger in windmills.
It does help to have an open mind, however. Rushdie’s so-called “magical realism” (that’s lit-crit for “making stuff up in an otherwise mostly real setting”) is on full display here. There are mastodons in New Jersey, a talking cricket (“you can call me Jiminy”) and even Oprah Winfrey has a legitimate talk- show competitor…”
Link to review
La Profesora del Mundo
“…Sara Poot_Herrera as long had one foot in the U.S. and the other in Mexico. A professor in UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, she’s been a powerful champion of Mexican and Spanish-American literature. Her scholarship and support of literatura iberoamericana have brought her numerous awards, including some of the most prestigious honors Mexico bestows…”
Link to article
“The Ballad of Huck & Miguel”: Huck Finn revisited, in today’s L.A.
“The mighty Mississippi has spawned many a mighty tale, but few as famous as “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Although now it’s required reading in most schools, when Mark Twain first published it in 1884, some didn’t consider the book’s discussion of slavery and racism such a charming tale.
Now, Tim DeRoche, a writer in Los Angeles, wants Huck to weave us a tale again, but with some modern-day twists. “I wanted to do it in a way that honored the original but that still added something new and that would be fun,” DeRoche said.
the-ballad-of-huck-and-miguel-redtail-press-cover-244.jpg
Redtail Press
In Twain’s version, Huck was fleeing his abusive alcoholic father, and along the way hooks up with a slave named Jim, also on the run.
In DeRoche’s re-telling, Huck remains the same troublesome teen from Missouri, but his companion has more modern-day woes to run from: immigration authorities. “What an escaped slave and an undocumented immigrant have in common…”
Link to ‘Sunday Morning’report
Lecturer repurposes Romance languages to reflect on its meaning in poetry book
“…Poems will mix multiple languages in “The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos.”
Susannah Rodríguez Drissi, a UCLA lecturer in Writing Programs, published her book in May. The book is a collection of 26 poems written in a combination of Romance languages including Spanish, Italian, French, English, Portuguese, and the Berber language, but most clearly resembling Spanish and Italian.
Each poem is written in a combination of many languages rather than one specific language. The book prompts readers, through exposure to a number of languages at once, to engage in interactions with the languages that allow them to better understand the poetry, Rodríguez Drissi said..”
Authors consider own backgrounds in portrayals of refugee and immigrant experiences
“…In the early 1990s, writer Viet Thanh Nguyen read a book about the Mexican-American border he found timely: “Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border,” by Luís Alberto Urrea. Twenty years later, the two authors will join forces to discuss refugees and immigrants.
The two hail from drastically different cultural backgrounds – Nguyen is a refugee from Vietnam while Urrea, who grew up in Tijuana, has an American mother and Mexican father. Their conversation Thursday in Royce Hall will detail both their personal histories and the influences behind their writing. They are both known for writing about these topics, from Urrea’s “Into the Beautiful North” and Nguyen’s “The Sympathizer;” they also know each other, as they first met when they were finalists for the 2016 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Their desire to humanize the immigrant and refugee experiences grounds both writers, though the contrasting pathways that preceded their works lead to different writing styles, Urrea said.
“We both have a serious intent and we are always representing (immigrants and refugees),” Urrea said. “It’s important for us to make a stand for our people, particularly in this environment now.”
Urrea saw the arts as a way of understanding where he fit in. His background made him feel isolated at times from both Latinos and Americans, he said, so he pursued poetry, songwriting, drawing and theater. During his senior year of college, his father died violently in Mexico. Urrea didn’t have any way to process it other than writing about it, he said. His bilingual skills and firsthand understanding of the American-Mexican border gave him an opportunity to share new stories of immigrants…”
Link to article
Other Voices, Other Worlds
“…Anthology of Latino speculative fiction co-edited by a UCSB scholar wins an American Book Award…”
Link to article
Every Day is Magic: Ada Limón
“…In her 2015 collection, Bright Dead Things, a National Book Award finalist for poetry, Ada Limón writes of moving to Kentucky: “Confession: I did not want to live here.” It’s perhaps not a surprising sentiment coming from a coastally oriented person who was raised in Northern California, attended college in Seattle, and then spent over a decade in New York City…”
Link to article
