The 5th Annual Noche de Macondo
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center
Friday, August 3, 2007 • 8pm
Check out Macondo Writers' Bios!
Sandra Cisneros is the author of several books, including The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek, Loose Woman and Caramelo. She is also the founder of the Macondo Workshop and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation.
Joy Harjo is a member of the Mvskoke (Creek) Tribe. Author of such books as: Woman who Fell from the Sky: Poems, A Map to the Next World: Poems and Tales, In Mad Love and War, and How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems 1975-2001. In addition to her writing, Harjo has produced two musical recordings and performs internationally. She is a Joseph Russo endowed professor at the University of New Mexico.
Tammy Gomez In September of 2007, Tammy Gomez will present the world premiere of “She: Bike/Spoke/Love”, a multimedia spoken word bicycle play—with the support of a NALAC (National Association for Latino Arts & Culture) Artist Production grant as well as a grant from the Puffin Foundation. She has been writing 365 poems (one a day) in 2007; to read them, go to
http://www.xxcommunicator.blogspot.com.
Monica Palacios is the creator of several one-person shows including: “Greetings From A Queer Señorita” and “Latin Lezbo Comic.” Monica is the winner of numerous awards and has been published in many anthologies, including Hairspray and Other Quinceanera Stories (forthcoming June 2007 HarperCollins). Palacios is a lecturer at Loyola Marymount University, UCLA, and UC Santa Barbara.
Yael Flusberg's memoir essays, poetry and reviews have been published in various anthologies and journals. She recently completed her first poetry collection, Stones Left on Graves. Yael makes her home in Washington , DC and is a co-founder of Sol & Soul, a nonprofit which nurtures and promotes emerging and seasoned artists of conscience.
Liz Gonzalez's poetry, fiction and memoirs have been published widely in many journals, periodicals, and in the anthologies Women on the Edge: Writing from Los Angeles and So Luminous the Wildflowers: An Anthology of California Poets. She teaches writing at Long Beach City College and creative writing at community centers, youth programs, and the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.
Carlos Cumpian is a San Antonio native who has helped develop MARCH Abrazo Press in Chicago during the past twenty-five years. Cumpian's poetry books are: Coyote Sun, Latino Rainbow, and Armadillo Charm. He recently completed ten years as a high school teacher and finished his first play, “Behind the Buckskin Curtain: Buffalo Bill's Border World.”
Daisy Hernandez is a Cubana Colombiana queer by way of New Jersey now residing on a tiny island outside San Francisco. Daisy has co-edited the anthology Colonize This!, is putting together a collection of personal essays, and also writes short stories. She writes, “La renta, comida y libros are all paid by my fabulous job at ColorLines, a newsmagazine on race and politics.” (
www.colorlines.com)
Angie Chau was born in Vietnam and has since lived on three continents and an island. Her work has appeared in the Indiana Review, Santa Clara Review, Slant and the anthology Cheers to Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women. One story received a nomination to Best New American Voices. She now lives in Berkeley.T.
Jackie Cuevas was raised by a single Tejana mother who taught her how to be a fierce, uncompromising chingona. Jackie is a queer writer, teacher, and activist-scholar. She runs a small publishing company called Evelyn Street Press. She is working on her Ph.D. in English and on a collection of short stories called “Selena Don’t Live Here Anymore: Tex-Mex Stories.”
Alex Espinoza earned his MFA at the University of California, Irvine, and served as editor of the literary journal, Faultline. His first novel, Still Water Saints, (Random House, 2007) was simultaneously released in Spanish. Alex is currently at work on his next novel, and will be joining the faculty of California State University Fresno as an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing.
Steven Cordova was born and raised in San Antonio and lives in Brooklyn. His first book of poems, Long Distance, is forthcoming from Bilingual Press. His poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Calalloo, The Cortland Review, Northwest Review, and The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry, among other journals and anthologies. His chapbook, Slow Dissolve, was published by Momotombo Press in 2003.
Lucha Corpi was born in Jaltipan, Veracruz, Mexico, and has resided in California since 1964, when at the age of nineteen she moved to Berkeley as a student wife. She holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.A. in World and Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University. She was a teacher in the Neighborhood Centers Adult School in Oakland from 1973 to 2005. Corpi writes her poetry in Spanish and is the author of three collections of poetry, Palabras de Mediodia (Noon Words) and Variaciones sobre una Tempestad (Variations on a Storm), with English translations by Catherine Rodriguez-Nieto. She is also the author of five novels and a bilingual children’s book, Ahi, donde bailan las luciemagas. Forthcoming in 2008 are The Triple Banana Split Boy/Diente dulce, and Death at Solstice. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and citations, among them an NEA poetry fellowship and a 2002 Texas Blue Bonnet selection for her children’s book.
Larry Mitchell is a self-taught guitarist and producer. He started playing guitar at age 9, after his mom threw his drumset out the window. Mitchell has toured with rock singers Billy Squier and Ric Ocasek and with folk/pop singer songwriter Tracy Chapman. In 1995, he produced the Rust Charles Band, his first outside production, which started him on the path of producing various singer songwriters in rock, acoustic folk, pop and R&B. He has won several awards in California and most recently in the New Mexico Music Awards.
