Hinojosa chosen as September 2014’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Hinojosa for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. About the Author: ROLANDO HINOJOSA, the Ellen Clayton Garwood Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Texas at Austin, is the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award; the most prestigious prize in Latin American fiction, Casa de las Américas, for the best Spanish American novel in 1976; and the Premio Quinto Sol in 1974. His novels include The Valley / Estampas del Valle, Ask a Policeman, The Useless Servants, and Dear Rafe / Mi querido Rafa, all …
Author on the Airwaves: Diane Gonzales Bertrand
Bertrand chosen as August 2014’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Bertrand for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. About the Author: DIANE GONZALES BERTRAND is the author of numerous books for children. They include The Story Circle / El círculo de cuentos (Piñata Books, 2016), A Bean and Cheese Taco Birthday / Un cumpleaños con tacos de frijoles con queso (2015), and Cecilia and Miguel Are Best Friends / Cecilia y Miguel son mejores amigos (2014). A lifelong resident of San Antonio, Bertrand teaches at St. Mary’s University, where she is also Writer-in-Residence. About her latest book, There’s a Name for this Feeling: Stories / Hay …
You’ve Been Upgraded to the Penthouse Suite!
Hotel Juárez wins PEN Oakland award HOUSTON, TX August 2014— The honors just keep coming! Author Daniel Chacón has been awarded the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature by PEN Oakland for Hotel Juárez: Stories, Rooms and Loops. Chartered in early 1989, PEN Oakland is a chapter of the Los Angeles based PEN USA, which falls under PEN International. The award ceremony will be held on Saturday, December 5, from 1-5pm, at the Rockridge Branch Library (5366 College Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618). Founded in London in 1921, PEN International’s mission is to promote works of excellence by writers of all cultural and racial backgrounds and to educate the public and media about the nature of multicultural work. In this collection of short and flash fiction, misconceptions about people, the responsibility of the artist and conflicts about identity pepper stories that take place in the U.S. and abroad. In …
The Cucuy Strikes Again!
Spelile Rivas’ monster children’s book named finalist HOUSTON, TX August 2014—The Cucuy Stole My Cascarones / El Cucuy me robó los cascarones by Spelile Rivas and illustrated by Valeria Cervantes has been chosen as a finalist in the 2014 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Awards. These awards seek to honor the best books readily available to a North American audience in any format within the past year. Killer Nashville Writers’ Conference was founded in 2006 by writer and filmmaker Clay Stafford. Since then, it has developed a reputation as a leading advocate for writers and readers of all genres. In this bilingual picture book, an imaginative boy overcomes his fears as he searches for his missing confetti eggs. Roberto and his mother made thirty dozen confetti-filled eggs for his birthday party. Roberto can’t wait to crack the hollowed, painted and confetti-stuffed eggs over his friends’ heads. But, when he goes to …
Library Renamed after Arte Público Author
EL PASO, TX July 2014—The El Paso City Council voted unanimously in favor of renaming an El Paso library in honor of acclaimed author and Ysleta native, Sergio Troncoso. As of July 29, the Ysleta Branch Library will be known as the Sergio Troncoso Library. It was built in 1996 and is located at 9321 Alameda Avenue, El Paso, Texas 79907. Representative Eddie Holguin of District 6 suggested the name change during his last council meeting. “I decided to propose the name change because Troncoso has advocated for literature, so that children can see that other El Pasoans of the Valley have done great things and they can be inspired to believe they can be successful too,” Holguin said. The son of immigrants from Juárez, Mexico, Troncoso grew up in an adobe house built by his parents. “I am very honored, I love Ysleta and I will always be from …
Author on the Airwaves: Estela Bernal
Bernal chosen as July 2014’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Bernal for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. About the Author: ESTELA BERNAL, the author of the teen novel Can You See Me Now?, was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, the southernmost part of Texas. She is a former teacher, social worker, civil servant, and military veteran. She now lives in Portland, Oregon, where she dedicates most of her time to writing about universal themes and multicultural characters that readers of all backgrounds can relate to. Her goal is to inspire children to read and, in the process, fall in love with books …
All the Clues Point to Greatness…
Denver-based mystery wins award in home state HOUSTON, TX June 2014—A thriller with a bit of Chicano flair, Desperado: A Mile-High Noir by Manuel Ramos has won the 2014 Colorado Book Award for Best Mystery given by the Colorado Humanities. Since its founding in 1974, Colorado Humanities has inspired the people of Colorado to share and apply the wisdom and inspiration of the humanities and to appreciate the state’s diverse cultural heritage. Each year, Colorado Humanities provides opportunities to more than 200,000 people to enrich individual lives and inform the community experience. In Manuel Ramos’ return to crime fiction, his protagonist Gus Corral can’t quite believe it when Artie Baca, an old high school buddy he hasn’t seen in years, asks him for help. He’s being blackmailed because of an imprudent fling—caught on video, of course. Artie has a prosperous real estate business and can afford to pay off the …
And the International Latino Book Award Goes To…
HOUSTON, TX June 2014—Three titles published by Arte Público Press were honored at the 16th annual International Latino Book Awards ceremony held during the American Library Association’s annual conference on June 28, 2014, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The awards honor literary excellence in a variety of categories and are sponsored by Latino Literacy Now, a non-profit organization that supports and promotes literacy and literary excellence within the Latino community. Our Lost Border: Essays on Life Amid the Narco-Violence, edited by Sarah Cortez and Sergio Troncoso, won First Place in the Best Spanish or Bilingual Latino Focused Nonfiction Book category. This collection contains personal essays in English and Spanish that deal with the impact of drug violence on people living along the Texas-Mexico border. Desperado: A Mile-High Noir, by author and attorney Manuel Ramos, won an Honorable Mention in the Best Mystery Novel category. Ramos returns to novel-length crime fiction with …
The Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project Receives Diversity Award from the Society of American Archivists
HOUSTON, TX June 2014—The Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Program, led by Nicolás Kanellos and Carolina Villarroel at the University of Houston, is a 2014 recipient of the Diversity Award given by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The award will be presented at a ceremony during the Joint Annual Meeting of the Council of State Archivists, the National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators, and SAA in Washington, DC, August 10-16, 2014. The award recognizes an individual, group, or institution for outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record. The Recovery Project is being honored for its outstanding achievement in accessioning important Latino archives, organizing and describing them, and making them available broadly to educational institutions and communities via publication and electronic delivery. The project has accessioned, organized, and described such important collections like that of Leonor Villegas de Magnón, a …
Chants Continues to Enchant
Día Founder’s First Poetry Book Turns 30 HOUSTON, TX June 2014—Award-winning poet, essayist, and children’s book author Pat Mora’s first poetry collection, Chants, was published by Arte Público Press 30 years ago, launching her trailblazing career. The poems in this collection reflect life in the magical presence of the desert a place of inspiration for her. Pat’s hometown, El Paso, the pass to the north, lies between vast stretches of desert. This is a geographic accident. Yet like everywhere, people live, love, marry, grow old and die. They also rejoice and despair. Mora’s poems reflect the joy and anguish of life, and in this volume two women poets sing, one in the guise of the desert, the other in the figure of Pat Mora. Together they intone Chants. Her debut poetry collection received numerous glowing reviews when it was first released: A Feminist Review called it “rich, spirited, and promising.” Highly praised …
