First Friday at Gemini Ink
It was standing room only during First Friday @ Gemini Ink last night as fans of Sandra Cisneros, Christine Granados and Diana Lopez filled the reading room to listen to these three talented writers speak speak about the literary award Sandra established in honor of her father, the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award.
The evening began with Sandra speaking sentimentally about her father who passed away 10 years ago. She affectionately referred to him as the biggest obstacle to her becoming a writer, while simultaneously being her safety net by helping her out financially while she pursued her writing goals. It was her father's spirit of providing financial assistance to a struggling writer that Sandra was trying to emulate in establishing the award that is now celebrating its sixth year of existence. Sandra also told an amusing story of reading Christine's book on a plane flight to Rome, but accidently leaving the book behind when she disembarked from the plane! Sandra then went on to introduce Diana Lopez, the 2004 recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, who would be introducing Christine.
Diana spoke fondly of her friendship with Christine, and of her admiration of Christine's book, noting that the powerful stories it contained of everyday people living in El Paso, straddling in essence two worlds, was gripping in that it did not focus on geographical borders but on emotional ones.
Christine recalled that she was speechless when she received the call from Sandra Cisneros to tell her she had won the award, and the $11,000 prize that came with the honor. She was in bed reading the Bible when the call came, and she was so sure she might forget something that Sandra was saying that her journalistic instincts took over and she began taking notes...on the back of the Bible! Christine then read a story from her book entitled "Interview."
After Christine's reading, and a Gemini Ink representative thanking everyone for attending First Friday, virtually everyone remained seated, not wanting the special evening to come to an end. Soon, a chant of "otra" (another one) began arising from the audience and Christine obliged the requests by reading a portion of another story from her book called "Man of the House."
This was the first time I had ever had the opportunity to meet Sandra Cisneros and I must admit to being a bit star-struck as I tried to work up the courage to speak to her one-on-one and to politely request her to sign my copy of "Caramelo." Sandra was simply wonderful as she gave me her undivided attention and wrote a lovely inscription in my book!
The evening began with Sandra speaking sentimentally about her father who passed away 10 years ago. She affectionately referred to him as the biggest obstacle to her becoming a writer, while simultaneously being her safety net by helping her out financially while she pursued her writing goals. It was her father's spirit of providing financial assistance to a struggling writer that Sandra was trying to emulate in establishing the award that is now celebrating its sixth year of existence. Sandra also told an amusing story of reading Christine's book on a plane flight to Rome, but accidently leaving the book behind when she disembarked from the plane! Sandra then went on to introduce Diana Lopez, the 2004 recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, who would be introducing Christine.
Diana spoke fondly of her friendship with Christine, and of her admiration of Christine's book, noting that the powerful stories it contained of everyday people living in El Paso, straddling in essence two worlds, was gripping in that it did not focus on geographical borders but on emotional ones.
Christine recalled that she was speechless when she received the call from Sandra Cisneros to tell her she had won the award, and the $11,000 prize that came with the honor. She was in bed reading the Bible when the call came, and she was so sure she might forget something that Sandra was saying that her journalistic instincts took over and she began taking notes...on the back of the Bible! Christine then read a story from her book entitled "Interview."
After Christine's reading, and a Gemini Ink representative thanking everyone for attending First Friday, virtually everyone remained seated, not wanting the special evening to come to an end. Soon, a chant of "otra" (another one) began arising from the audience and Christine obliged the requests by reading a portion of another story from her book called "Man of the House."
This was the first time I had ever had the opportunity to meet Sandra Cisneros and I must admit to being a bit star-struck as I tried to work up the courage to speak to her one-on-one and to politely request her to sign my copy of "Caramelo." Sandra was simply wonderful as she gave me her undivided attention and wrote a lovely inscription in my book!
posted by PAC PR at 9:15 AM
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