I hear that over 11,000 people attended this year’s AWP
Conference (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) in Boston from March
6-9. Plenty of powerful latino authors participated in panels and readings. I didn’t
get a chance to attend all events, but I did go to the presentation of
NewBorder’s forthcoming Anthology: NewBorder: Contemporary Voices from the Texas/Mexico Border. I
also got to hear poet Eduardo C.Corral in a panel entitled ‘The Divided Heart’.
At the NewBorder reading, Dalel Serda (http://newborder.org/masthead/dalel-serda/)
read from her nonfiction piece documenting the lives of sex workers at the
border, John O. Espinoza (http://www.john-olivares-espinoza.com/) shared
poems about identity and border-crossings, and Sergio Troncoso (http://www.sergiotroncoso.com/) read an essay
on taking his children to El Paso, waiting for the day when they might visit
the Juarez of his childhood. La Casa Azul Bookstore even got a mention
from Sergio Troncoso when he described Mexican presence in El Barrio.
At the panel ‘The Divided Heart’, Eduardo C. Corral read
his poem “In Colorado My Father Scoured and
Stacked Dishes” (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/243752).
He explained that being the 2011 winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets
competition was a bitter-sweet experience. Sweet for the recognition and for
knowing he would help pave the way for further latino poets. Bitter for the
realization that he’s the very first latino poet to win the award. Corral says
that when a door opens for him, he’s careful not to move too quickly towards
the center of the room, and instead tries to stay at the door for a moment,
holding it open so that other talented latinos can enter the space and share
their work (http://www.eduardocorral.com/).
(Ah, AWP. What a nourishing, ecstatic, overwhelming
experience: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/overview)
See you in Seattle for AWP 2014!
