Online Radio Interview with KUHA in Houston

Check out my "Arte Publico Author of the Month" online radio interview with Eric Landau of KUHA, 91.7 Classical Radio, Houston. Thanks for a great conversation, Eric!

http://www.classical917.org/articles/1363004392-Classical-91.7-Arte-Publico-Author-of-the-Month-Alicia-Gaspar-de-Alba.html

AWP in Boston

At Logan Airport waiting for our flight back to LA after a very stimulating AWP that was one part informational, one part nostalgic, and at times just plain eerie. I used to live in Boston in the latter half of the 1980s and Copley Square, Boylston Street, the whole Back Bay Area was my old neighborhood. Back then I walked almost daily, long walks down Newbury or Marlborough Streets, between my apartment on The Fenway and the Public Garden, with side trips to Beacon Hill or the Public Library, where I was doing research on the witch trials for the book that would become Calligraphy of the Witch.

I kept feeling the magnetic pull of the Boston Common, and the yearning to be outside meandering through the streets. I wanted to show my darling Alma the gazebo in the Common where I stood when I wrote the poem, "Listening to My Bones" the time five pigeons landed on my arm and a squirrel for some reason scurried up my back and stood on my head for a few seconds. I wanted her to see  the Old South Church, the grand entrance of the Library, my T Stop off the Green Line, my favorite bookstore (the Trident,  of course, which I'm happy to say us still in business) but my plans were foiled by the snowstorm. A huge snowstorm fell over the Eastern seaboard on the first day of the conference, and we awoke to one of those silver-white days where the snow flurries from daybreak to dusk and the only light comes from the mounting snowbanks on the ground. No walking that day, so we stayed put inside the Hynes Convention center and attended all the sessions we could, though it was crazy how many sessions had been scheduled at the same time and really how little we could take in. Still we learned about picture books and illustrated novels and heard some excellent short fiction and poetry. It was heartening to see how many literary journals are still in business and
still publishing poetry. How many new poetry books there were, how many poets still plying their trade, how many new formats there are to publish poetry and short fiction.  We were especially impressed with the new journal called Hoot, which bills itself a mini-review of work that is no longer than 150 words, published on postcards. We loved that format and saw immediately how we could adapt it for our Codex Nepantla project.

Perhaps the most inspiring part of the conference was Jeanette Winterson's keynote presentation and reading from her memoir on Friday afternoon to a packed auditorium. It seemed like all 11,000 of the AWP attendees were at her reading, which was so much more than a reading, but also a philosophical contemplation of the writer's life, her family foibles, her experience as an adopted child, and at one point she apologized for having transformed the reading into a revival meeting. She was so funny, and her memoir so very good, authentic and honest. Unfortunately, the line of folks wanting to buy her book wrapped around the balustrade and they ran out just as I was getting there. I wasn't able to bring home her signature in a book but Jeanette did get to take home the beautiful watercolor drawing Alma was making of her while she spoke, with Winterson's hilarious phrase, "... Contemplating the horrors of heterosexuality..." on it.

But the streets' beckoning would not relent, and luckily Saturday turned out to be a clear day, the sky a pristine blue and the snow dazzling white in the sunlight. Off to the Common we went, setting off on Boylston Street and making stops along the way for Alma to film me with her bloggie for a short video she wants to put together for me to help give Calligraphy of the Witch more exposure. She loved the old buildings, the friendliness of the Boston folks, the food (mostly pub food) we ate. She really loved that the writers at the conference seemed very down to earth, and that they seemed genuinely excited about sharing their work and their ideas. At one point she said that hanging out with writers was like being around artists, only with words.

Reading & Book Signing on Dec. 9

To celebrate the paperback release of Calligraphy of the Witch I will be doing a reading & book signing at ChimMaya Art Gallery (5283 E. Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles CA 90022) on December 9 from 2-4pm. One of the things I most like about the paperback (other than my darling wife's cover, of course) is the way Marina, Gabi, and Nick at Arte Publico Press made the influence of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, on the book and on the main character's life, front and center. The story could be described as Sor Juana meets the Salem witch trials, although it's her assistant Concepción who embodies the poetry and philosophy of la décima Musa in New England. This is the flyer that Alma created for the event. Note the nifty code box that can be scanned by a phone or Ipad and it will take you directly to my website. So cool.

Calligraphy of the Witch Book Trailer

After four years of Calligraphy of the Witch being out of print, the paperback edition has just been released by Arte Público Press. I'm so happy the book is available again. When the hardback first edition was released by St. Martin's Press in the Fall of 2007, I had just started Chairing the César Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies at UCLA. Administrative work completely absorbed all of my time and energy for three years, and I wasn't able to do the book justice, unlike the success I had with Desert Blood, which I was able to promote widely. Now, Arte Público Press has released the paperback edition of Calligraphy of the Witch, sporting a brand new cover designed by my darling wife, Alma Lopez. Alma is also responsible for this gorgeous book trailer. You can order the book through my website: www.aliciagaspardealba.net, or wherever books are sold. The new cover features performer/musician Lysa Flores as the main character, Concepción Benavídez. Special thanks to Adelina Anthony for performing the part of Concepción's daughter, Hanna Jeremiah, in the book trailer.

Pooling thoughts at the end of my spring sabbatical

Im sitting in my mom's kitchen in El Paso this Friday morning looking out at the contrast between dry desert and the blue pool in the backyard, abandoned most of the time but still glittering the same bright clear blue as the west Texas sky. I'm remembering all the different parties we've had in this backyard, most memorably my 40th piñata party over a decade ago, and even further back, my goodbye party as I prepared to leave El Paso after 27 years and two lifetimes here, to embark on the adventure of PhD school at the U of Iowa (where I only last 9 months). At the time all I had in terms of publishing credits were a few poems and short prose pieces, and the dream of one day being a published author of novels and other booksg gleamed as bright and pristine as this backyard pool. Today I have ten published books, and I sit here contemplating how to balance the completion of two more: my next academic book and the YA novel I've been working on since I finished NaNoWriMo in 2010. It is the end of my spring quarter sabbatical at UCLA which means I have only three months of writing time left before I have to find my Profe hat and start preparing for the new academic year and our first cohort of PhD students in the Chavez Department. I could never have imagined this busy and productive life back in 1985, even with my BA and MA in hand. My life then was like that pool, clear and wide open.

11/11/11

Sold my first book on PayPal! Thank you Allison in Louisiana for purchasing a hardback first edition copy of Sor Juana's Second Dream from my website. I think this bodes well for a triple 11 day. I'm also selling first editions of the totally out of print and hard to find Calligraphy of the Witch. Click here to read the great review AnneMarie Perez posted on Aztlan Reads: http://www.aztlanreads.com/2011/08/27/calligraphy-of-the-witch/
Be sure to click on the link at the bottom of the review to see the trailer that my darling Alma made.

No NaNoWriMo this year

I can't believe it's more than a year since I've updated my blog and that's after a year of not teaching. I did finish NaNoWriMo last year for the first time and produced my first YA novel that I'm actually pretty proud of. This year instead of launching into a brand new story I'm going to rerevise Drag King Debutante even though I am teaching a huge intro course of nearly 400 students and writing two new research essays. But did promise my agent she'd get the book in January. So that's what I'll be working on for the next 2.5 months. and learning to play on my iPad.