The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center
and Red Salmon Arts present the
2nd Flor De Nopal Literary Festival
December 7th, 2012
Reception
7pm
Reading
8pm
Poet’s Round Robin
Celeste Guzman Mendoza
Gloria Amescua
jo reyes-boitel
John D. Fry
Liliana Valenzuela
Short Story Writers
Ramona Reeves
ire’ne lara silva
Invited Feature Readers
Emmy Perez
Bárbara Renaud González
Book Signing @ conclusion of the reading
This program is sponsored in part by Red Salmon Arts; Resistencia Bookstore; UT Center for Mexican American Studies; ACC-Rio Grande/Arts & Humanities Division.
For more info: www.flordenopalliteraryfestival.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/flordenopallitfest
Bio’s
Celeste Guzman Mendoza is a Macondista, Hedgebrook resident, and co-founder of CantoMundo, a master writer’s workshop for Latina/o poets. Her poetry and essays have appeared in various anthologies published by Penguin, Calaca Press, Eakin Press and Wings Press. Her first, full-length poetry manuscript, Beneath the Halo, is due out in Spring 2013 by Wings Press. Her chapbook, Cande te estoy llamando, won the Poesia Tejana Prize in 1999. A performer and playwright, Mendoza’s plays have been produced in Austin and San Antonio. She is at work on a second poetry manuscript, and lives in Austin with her husband and three cats.
Gloria Amescua is an inaugural member of CantoMundo, a national Latino poetry community. She resides in Austin, Texas and received a Masters degree from the University of Texas in Austin. Gloria has had poetry published in Poetgraphy, Di-Verse-City-Too, Tres-Di-Verse-City, Awakening, IXHUA, Di-Verse-City 2011, Kweli Journal (www.kwelijournal.org), Generations Literary Journal, Spring 2012 and Texas Poetry Calendar 2013. A workshop presenter for youth and adults, she was also a 2011 resident at Hedgebrook’s Writers in Residence program on Whidbey Island, Washington.
jo reyes-boitel: writer, motivator/supporter, mother, daughter to oya and obatala, rabid music listener, percussionist and lover. texas transplant, by way of minnesota | florida | mexico | cuba. jo works to actively connect everyday earth activities to the heaven that surrounds.
John D. Fry is the author of the forthcoming chapbook silt will swirl (NewBorder Publishing). He recently received his M.F.A. from Texas State University, where he is the Book Review Editor for Front Porch Journal. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Konundrum Engine Literary Review, The Dirty Napkin, The Texas Review, BorderSenses, St. Sebastian Review, and Blood Orange Review. He lives in the Texas Hill Country far enough away from the light pollution of San Antonio to be able to see the stars on most nights.
Liliana Valenzuela is the author of Codex of Journeys: Bendito camino published by Mouthfeel Press.Also of the artisan chapbooks Bocas palabras, Mujer frontera, mujer Malinche, and The Poetry of Rice Fields. She’s received awards for poetry from the University of California, Irvine, and the Austin Poetry Society. Valenzuela is the Spanish language translator of works by Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Denise Chávez, Nina Marie Martínez, Alex Espinoza, Cristina García, and many other writers. A member of Macondo Writers Workshop and inaugural fellow of CantoMundo, she works as a reporter for ¡ahora sí!. For details, visitwww.LilianaValenzuela.com, and www.ahorasi.com
Ramona Reeves has received a writer’s residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and a fellowship from a A Room of Her Own. She has also been a finalist in the Austin Chronicle Short Story contest. She has published essays, poetry, fiction, and interviews. By day, she works as mild-mannered editor in Austin, Texas. By night, she writes and dreams.
ire’ne lara silva lives in Austin, TX . Her work has appeared in various journals and anthologies, most recently in Bordersenses, Generations, Ginosko Literary Journal, Palabra, and Yellow Medicine Review. She is the 2008 recipient of the Gloria Anzaldua Milagro Award, an inaugural CantoMundo Fellow, and the author of two chapbooks: ani’mal and INDíGENA. Her first collection of poetry, furia, (Mouthfeel Press, 2010) received an Honorable Mention for the 2011 International Latino Book Award in Poetry.
Poet/writer website: http://www.irenelarasilva.webs.com
Emmy Pérez is the author of a poetry collection, Solstice (2nd edition, 2011). Her work has also appeared in North American Review, The Laurel Review, PALABRA, The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry, A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line, and other publications. Her poetry was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. For the past three years, she was a CantoMundo poetry fellow. A recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award, currently she is an associate professor at the University of Texas-Pan American, where she teaches creative writing and Mexican American Studies courses. She is a recipient of a 2012 UT Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.
Bárbara Renaud González is an award-winning writer, journalist, and activist. She is the author of the novelGolondrina, Why Did You Leave Me? and Willie and the Flood/Su Voto es Su Voz, a children’s book on the life of Southwest Voter Registration and Education, Project founder Willie Velasquez. Gonzalez’ essays and articles have appeared in The Nation, The Progressive, Ms., The Los Angeles Times and many others. Her commentaries have aired on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and “Latino USA.”
