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El Moisés , Illustrator
Enrique R. Lamadrid, Spanish TranslationMuseum of New Mexico Press - March
[from the publisher]
The adventures and lessons continue in this second book featuring Ollie Tecolote—the Owl in a Straw Hat. Chicano storyteller Rudolfo Anaya tackles the subject of school bullying in this magical fairy tale presented in English and Spanish, side-by-side. Jackie Jackalope is missing from class and the teacher (Ollie’s Nana) gets to the bottom of it. The kids have been teasing Jackie about her horns and she has run away. A contrite Ollie and Uno the Unicorn, both guilty of teasing, volunteer to find Jackie and bring her back to school. Their journey to Pot of Gold Land begins when they have to face three guardians of the Dark Forest: La Llorona, El Kookoóee, and Skeleton Woman. Next, the Golden Carp allows them to cross Rainbow Bridge after they answer a riddle. When they reach Jackie they apologize for bullying her. Ollie and Jackie hop on Uno’s back for the ride back to Wisdom School.
Amalia L. Ortiz
Aztlan Libre Press - May
[from the publisher]
Set in a not-so-distant dystopian future, La Madre Valiente, a refugee raised under the oppressive State, studies secretly to become the leader of a feminist revolution. Her emissaries, Las Hijas de la Madre, roam the land spreading her story, educating others, and galvanizing allies.
The much anticipated second book by award-winning author and performance poet Amalia L. Ortiz, The Canción Cannibal Cabaret & Other Songs is a hybrid manuscript experimenting with poetry at the intersection of performance. As a text, it is a collection of post-apocalyptic prose poems and poem songs “cannibalizing” knowledge from before the fall of civilization. In performance, it is a Xicana punk rock musical—part concept album, part radio play. Inspired by current issues of social injustice, this book is a refugee, people of color, feminist, and LGBTQ+ call to action.
Amalia Leticia Ortiz is a Tejana actor, writer, and activist who appeared on three seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO, and has toured colleges and universities as a solo artist and with performance-poetry troupes Diva Diction, The Chicano Messengers of Spoken Word, and the Def Poetry College Tour. Her debut book of poetry, Rant. Chant. Chisme., (Wings Press), won the 2015 Poetry Discovery Prize from the Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards and was selected by NBC Latino as one of the “10 Great Latino Books of 2015.” A CantoMundo Fellow and Hedgebrook Writer-In-Residence alumna, she received the 2002 Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award, which was founded by Sandra Cisneros, and her poem These Hands Which Have Never Picked Cotton was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Prize. Her MFA is in Creative Writing from the University of Texas Río Grande Valley.
Dominicana: A Novel
Angie Cruz
Flatiron Books - September
[from the publisher]
Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America, the way the girls she grew up with in the Dominican countryside did. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. It doesn’t matter that he is twice her age, that there is no love between them. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year’s Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz, a wife confined to a cold six-floor walk-up in Washington Heights. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan’s free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay.As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan returns to protect his family’s assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. Suddenly, Ana is free to take English lessons at a local church, lie on the beach at Coney Island, see a movie at Radio City Music Hall, go dancing with Cesar, and imagine the possibility of a different kind of life in America. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.
In bright, musical prose that reflects the energy of New York City, Angie Cruz's Dominicana is a vital portrait of the immigrant experience and the timeless coming-of-age story of a young woman finding her voice in the world.
Angie Cruz is the author of the novels Soledad and Let It Rain Coffee, a finalist in 2007 for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She has published work in The New York Times, VQR, Gulf Coast Literary Journal, and other publications, and has received fellowships from the New York Foundation of the Arts, Yaddo, and the MacDowell Colony. She is founder and editor in chief of Aster(ix), a literary and arts journal, and is an associate professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.
Aimée Medina Carr
Homebound Press - September
[from the publisher]
River of Love is a supernatural love story about a fierce indigenous Mexican American girl growing up in a white Colorado town during a youth-led cultural revolution of the 1970s. It’s a love letter to the Southern Rocky Mountains, to the spirits, to a close-knit family, and even to youth itself. The Arkansas River is a vital character, as is the environment, and wisdom of the ancestors. Things that happen when you’re young seem so much more important because they’re happening for the first time. Indigenous Mexican Americans straddle two very different cultures; this story focuses on how we are all connected. Power is lost by moving in a forward direction the whole time looking backward. Mistakes are portals of discovery. Trust The River ~The Flow ~ the Lover, to be in the present, trying not to make things happen, to not push The River. Let things come and go on their own, to flow like a riverbed. The story culminates with the high school friends gathering at a 40th school reunion. Attachments are invisible threads that reach through dimensions of space and time. Infinite love shapes our lives. Love is what we are made for, and love is who we are. What if caring for each other is the summit? At all costs stay connected.
“Evocative, touching storytelling about a region and people that doesn’t get enough coverage. A fine debut!”
—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times
Later.
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Manuel Ramos writes crime fiction. His latest is The Golden Havana Night (Arte Público Press.)
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