De Chicago y Nuevo Mexico and a Cautionary Word

NEW MEXICO BOOK AWARDS NOVEMBER 21 IN ALBUQUERQUE
recognizing the best books in New Mexico & the Southwest Mission: To promote and recognize great books published in the Southwest and New Mexico. Uncovering the best in New Mexico's books (and the entire Southwest)! The purpose of the New Mexico Book Awards is to honor great books from New Mexico and the Southwest. Each year, the New Mexico Book Awards Program honors special New Mexico authors/publishers for their special contributions to New Mexico's book community. In 2008, the New Mexico Book Awards will present Friends of New Mexico Books Awards to Denise Chavez (Las Cruces) and David Morrell (Santa Fe) for their support of local New Mexico books. In 2007, Tony Hillerman (Los Ranchos) and Rudolfo Anaya (Albuquerque) were honored with the Friends of New Mexico Books Awards.

Reservations New Mexico Book Awards Banquet

The banquet for the 2008 Book Awards will be on November 21 at the MCM Elegante Hotel in Albuquerque. The winners will be announced at the banquet (finalists will be announced in late September). Last year the banquet tickets were all sold out by October 1. Reserve your tickets early and guarantee a seat. The cost is $36 per person if paid for by October 15; after October 15 the price goes up to $46 per person. The hotel is offering a discount on rooms for any attendees. The room rate is $79 for two.

This includes free breakfast for two people and two fee cocktails from the Hotel bar. Mention “New Mexico Book Awards” when making your reservation. The hotel is at 2020 Menaul Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87107 (505) 884-2511. For more information, go to the NM Book Coop website at: http://www.nmbookcoop.com/ THANK YOU to Paul Rhetts and NM Book Coop for all their hard work and true devotion to literature, writers and readers!!

TUMBLEWORDS PROJECT SCHEDULE IN EL PASO
Where: Memorial Park Public Library 3200 Copper Avenue, El Paso, TX (915) 566-1034 Cost: Free, but donations accepted for the presenter
When: All events are Saturday afternoons from 12:45 to 2:45
Contact: Donna Snyder at 328-5484 or tumblewordsproject@yahoo.com Sept 6 and 13

Robin Scofield Art and Affection
Scofield is a respected poet and educator whose publication credits include the Paris Review, the Texas Observer, Sin Fronteras, Border Voices, Rio Grande Review, and the Western Humanities Review among other literary journals. She has presented workshops and readings at the Border Book Festival, the Border Voices Festival, Bridge Center for Contemporary Art, UTEP, and EPCC. She has participated and volunteered in the Tumblewords Project for over twelve years, and regularly attends the poetry workshop at San Miguel de Allende.

Sept 13 Sept 20 Nancy Lorenza Green
Tumblewords Poetry Compilation. Nancy Lorenza Green, M.Ed. is an Afro-Chicana performance and recording artist from El Paso and Cd. Juarez who uses poetry, percussion instruments and flute music as mediums of communication and cultural expression. Nancy has recorded three cds: Music From the Heart, Life Is Sacred, and a Tumblewords poetry compilation. Her poetry has been published in Border Senses, Chrysalis, Newspaper Tree, and Mujeres de Maiz Zine 5& 6. Nancy is the recipient of the 2006 Art & Entertainment Hispanos Triunfadores award and the 1999 Que Bonita Familia Homenaje a la Mujer award.

Sept 27 THE BIG READ: Sun, Stone and Shadow 20 Great Mexican Short Stories
In collaboration with El Paso Library’s Big Read program, Tumblewords Project will host a discussion of an anthology edited by Jorge Hernandez, published in June of this year by Fondo de Cultura Economica USA. The collection presents twenty short stories by the finest Mexican authors born in the first half of the twentieth century, including Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes, and was created specifically for use in The Big Read. El Paso Library will be one of two libraries nationwide to present an event in Mexico as well as the US. Other writers included in the collection include are Salvador Elizondo, Jose Revueltas, Elena Garro, Francisco Rojas Gonzalez. Martín Luis Guzman. Edmundo Valades, Sergio Pito, Ines Arredondo, Juan Garcia Ponce, Juan de la Cabada, Efren Hernandez, Francisco Tario, Juan Rulfo, Rosario Castellanos, Alfonso Reyes, Juan Jose Arreola, Jose Emilio Pacheco, and Jorge Ibarguengoi.

LA CONCHA DE LA TORTUGA CD RELEASE PARTY AT EL PASO PUBLIC LIBRARY OCTOBER 18
Save the date of Saturday, October 18 for the Release party of the CD, La Concha de La Tortuga, a collaboration between artists Nancy Green, Ricardo Valencia, Denise Chavez, Corina Gabaldon and Kris Wroblewski. The project began at an Origens of World Music workshop by Nancy Green for the Even Start Family Literacy Program through the Las Cruces Public Schools under the direction of Corina Gabaldon. Denise Chavez and Corina Gabaldon were given a turtle conch shell and a pair of deer antlers with instructions to go at it. From this workshop emerged a creation myth about the origens of the world featuring Mother Turtle. Following this, Nancy Green wrote a grant to the City of El Paso Arts Program and musicians Ricardo Valencia (originally from Mexico City) and Kris Wroblweski joined the collaboration to create the story of Emergence, Migration and Return with original music by Nancy Green, Corina Gabaldon and Kris Wroblewski, with a text by Denise Chavez and Corina Gabaldon. The CD will be available through the Cultural Center and from the artists as well at other area locations. More information forthcoming!! For the real scoop, contact La Jefa/La Mera Mera Nancy Green at: nancygreen9@yahoo.com

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

In a time of less and less support of literacy and literary discourse, we have this information to share with our readers:

Concerning Oscar Villalon's leaving as book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6590117.html?desc=topstory

Sad news but symptomatic of what's going on with book review section. Oscar is (was) one of maybe two Chicano newspaper book review editors. Here's an interview from Critical Mass where he does talk about how unusual this is:
http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/2006/08/critical-i-conversation-with-oscar_07.html

Lisa Alvarado