San Antonio First Annual Book Festival

The following is submitted by Ruben Soto, SLHW President:


Here is a story about San Antonio's First Annual Book Festival. It will feature 60 authors and many of them are Latino. Thanks to Becky Barrera for informing me about this important event. It will be held from April 13-19. If you have written a book and want to be featured in this event let me know since there are a few openings left for local Latino authors.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/fine-print/2013/03/texas-book-festivalsan-antonio-edition-full-of-local-flavor/

SLHW Officers Needed!

The following post is submitted by Ruben Soto, SLHW President:
SLHW Officers needed!

We need at least two more officers for our group. It doesn't matter whether you are new or have been a member for a while. We are always looking for new people who will bring new perspectives and ideas to the group. Please contact me if you are interested at Rubenso99@yahoo.com  Thanks!

Pitch Session Meeting

The following post is submitted by Ruben Soto, SLHW President:


Reminder that we have our "Pitch Session Meeting" today, Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm at the Barnes and Nobles San Pedro Crossing. Joseph Casanova will moderate this event to help prepare those who will be pitching to Leticia Gomez or who will be pitching to other agents in the future. Prepare a 5 to 10 minute pitch of your manuscript so that you can present it at the meeting. See you there!

Articles and Stories needed for Tejano Conjunto Festival Program Magazine

THE GUADALUPE SEEKS ARTICLES AND STORIES FOR THE TEJANO CONJUNTO FESTIVAL PROGRAM MAGAZINE

(San Antonio, Texas) The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is looking for written material on conjunto music for possible publication in the program magazine for the 32nd Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio 2013. Literary submissions can include scholarly articles, short stories, poetry, essays, and interviews with conjunto artists, etc., as long as it deals with some aspect of conjunto music. Conjunto is that original American musical ensemble and style of music which was created by the Texas-Mexicans and which utilizes the button accordion and bajo sexto as its principal instruments.

Articles, poems, short stories, etc., of any length, will be accepted for review and possible publication through March 31, 2013. Literature should be e-mailed as an attachment to Juan Tejeda at juantejeda@sbcglobal.net. Tejeda, who is directing this year’s 32nd Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival and editing the magazine content for the festival, will be reviewing the submissions and making the selections to be published.

Tejeda, who created the Tejano Conjunto Festival and directed it for the first seventeen years while serving as the Xicano Music Program Director for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, said: “We always look forward to receiving submissions for the Tejano Conjunto Festival program magazine. This printed piece is an important educational source on conjunto music, as well as a promotional tool for the festival and the conjunto musicians performing at the festival.”

The 32nd Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio 2013 will take place May 15–16 at the Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe Street and May 17–19 at Rosedale Park, 303 Dartmouth. The festival will feature a Seniors Conjunto Dance; inductions into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame; workshops on the button accordion and bajo sexto; a “New Directions” concert; and three days and over 36 of the very best bands in conjunto music at Rosedale Park that includes special tributes, plus food and beverage booths, accordion raffle, student recital and more.

For more information, call (210) 271-3151, or visit www.guadalupeculturalarts.org. The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1980 to preserve, promote and develop the arts of the Chicano/Latino/Native American peoples for all ages and backgrounds through public and educational programming in six disciplines: dance, literature, media arts, theater arts, visual arts and music.

Opening Reception: Chican and Chicano Studies

The following post is from Juan Tejeda:

Wednesday, March 20, at the Texas A&M Education and Cultural Center (formerly the Museo Alameda at Market Square downtown, 101 S. Santa Rosa), at 7:30pm, will be the Opening Reception for the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies national conference being held in San Antonio this week from May 20-23.

The reception is at 7:30pm, then there will be a free Poetry Reading from the Chicano Movement at 8:30-10pm featuring Benjamin Alire Saenz, Nepthalí De León, Inés Hernández Ávila, Evangelina Vigil-Piñón, Reyes Cárdenas, José Flores Peregrino, María Limón, Eduardo Garza and Laurie Ann Guerrero.

Aztlan Libre Press will be there to "officially unveil" our sixth publication: Reyes Cárdenas Chicano Poet 1970-2010, a forty year retrospective of Reyes' poetry. Reyes and other authors will be signing their books. Also, L.A. David, VatoCózmico, whose artwork graces the cover of Reyes' book, as well as 11 original black & white title-page illustrations, and Juan Rodríguez, who wrote the Introduction, will also be signing copies. Hope to see you there and spread the palabra, por favor. Gracias. Juan & Anisa

Pitch Session Information

To help prepare those lucky enough to have a pitch meeting with Literary Agent Leticia Gomez of Savvy Literary Agency next month, a special prep session will be conducted Monday, March 25 at Barnes and Noble’s on San Pedro at 7:30 p.m.


Since I have experience pitching to various agents and editors, I will be happy to answer questions and to provide insight into the actual process.

For those serious about seeking agent representation and eventually being published the traditional way, a pitch session is a step in the right direction. To help alleviate any fears about the first meeting, you just need to remember the 3 C’s of Pitching – Confidence, Credibility and Creativity.

Ms. Gomez will host a special presentation about the entire publishing process on Saturday, April 20 at 9:30 a.m. at 8407 Broadway in San Antonio. Cost is only $25; and for more information and to RSVP, you can contact Ruben Soto at 210-275-3731.

Remember having a successful pitch session with an agent can put you on the correct path to start your literary career.

Carmen Tafolla reads from REBOZOS

Rebozos

Join UTSA in a celebration of San Antonio's First Poet Laureate,

Carmen Tafolla 

Reading from

REBOZOS

Accompanying her will be 

Azul 

and

Soul Fusion Dance Troupe

in a dramatic-visual interpretation of the portraits of artist Catalina Garate

Also a a special presentation by Jose Mario Castillo, UTSA Mexican American Studies Student

Friday, March 29, 2013

UTSA Downtown Campus

Buena Vista Theater

6:30 pm – 7:00  pm Reception

7:30 pm Performance

Free and open to the public

Sponsored by: Mexican American Studies Program

Consortium for Social Transformation

Women's Studies Institute

The Office of Dean Betty Merchant, COEHD

Awaken the Sleeping Poet

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Awaken the Sleeping Poet at the Twig

Tuesday night, March 12th, at the Twig Book Shop, Featuring:An Evening With Darrell Pittman...

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Darrell Pittman

One of San Antonio's best kept secrets.
Darrell's poetry is humorous, sensual, and poignant.
He will make you laugh and cry. He has a God given talent
and an amazing voice for poetry.  If you miss him,
you'll be missing one the best poetry nights of the year.

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     Darrell Pittman is a poet who is a conundrum. Personally, he defies any attempt to categorize his poetry or his existence. He is multi-faceted in his life, from leisure to social causes.  This enigma began at birth with the choice of his name. His father, a man from the backwoods of Mississippi, named him after a French Canadian, Yvon Durelle but spelled it d-a-r-r-e-l-l. Still, although pronounced “Du-Relle,” over time his family changed the pronunciation to “DaRell.” Contradictions continued with his schooling. Although he began his education in segregation and poverty, he ultimately was well educated by catholic nuns in Great Britain. The yin and yang of his life continued with his introduction to poetry. His favorite poets are 1960’s Nikki Giovanni and 1860’s Charles Baudelaire. His favorite playwrights are South African, Athol Fugard and San Antonio’s own Sterling Houston. His musical interests vary from the Motown Temptations to the Russian Rachmaninov to the German, Agnes Bernelle to the Puerto Rican, Tito Puente.
     So goes his approach to performance poetry. He has performed his poetry solo, on “slam teams” and with a jazz based “performance-poetry” group called, “The Wagging Tongues.”  He has read his poetry in art galleries and museums and a biker bar in Austin. He has performed his poetry in honky tonks and bars and an international airport concourse. He has done poetry workshops for high school and college students in classrooms and with juveniles on probation in detention.
     Recently he has begun to try his hand at playwriting. To date, he has had four of his one act plays selected for production here in San Antonio.
     Finally, no matter how difficult it is to classify Darrell or his writing, one theme does run true throughout: He tries to, “touch the heart, inspire the mind and move the soul” with all that he writes. Yet, even more importantly than that, he wants to personally shake the hand of the person who decided to butter the pecans BEFORE putting them in the ice cream. That is Darrell Pittman.
     Darrell has been published in books: Vision Quest, Voices Along the River (two editions), Reflections of Light, San Antonio Poetry Festival, San Antonio Poetry Anthology.  Magazines: Patchwork Poems (four editions), Sun Poetic Times, The International Poets Journal, Poetry Magazine (three editions), and the San Antonio Express-News (two editions), and the webzine, Invasive Thoughts.

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Darrell begins at 7:00 p.m.  Open mic begins at 8:00, so bring some poems to share,
because Open Mic is where anybody in the audience can share their poetry.
Then Darrell will close with a couple of encore poems at 8:50.

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The Twig Book Shop is the premiere poetry place in San Antonio.
Located at 200 E. Grayson, Ste. 124, San Antonio, TX in the
revitalized historic Pearl Brewery.

Host:
Floyd L. Lamrouex
lamrouex@sbcglobal.net
(210) 656-3131

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Meet with Literary Agent

The following message is from SLHW President Ruben Soto: 

Just a reminder that Literary Agent Leticia Gomez of Savvy Literary Agency will be holding a special presentation on Saturday, April 20 for anyone interested in having their book published traditionally and being represented by an agent.

The cost is only $25.

It will be held at Viva Bookstore located at 8407 Broadway in San Antonio at 9:30am. For more information and to RSVP please call 210-275-3731 and ask to speak to Ruben.