Orlando Ortega-Medina, in conversation with Daniel Olivas, discusses "The Fitful Sleep of Immigrants" at Book Soup on April 27

DATE: Thursday, April 27, 2023 - 7:00 p.m.

ADDRESS: BOOK SOUP, 8818 W Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

DETAILS: https://www.booksoup.com/event/Orlando-Ortega-Medina

“A riveting yarn with a charismatic tempter.” –Kirkus Reviews

ABOUT THE BOOK: Attorney Marc Mendes, the estranged son of a prominent rabbi and a burned-out lawyer with addiction issues, plots his exit from the big city to a more peaceful life in idyllic Napa Valley. But before realizing his dream, the US government summons his Salvadoran life partner Isaac Perez to immigration court, threatening him with deportation.

As Marc battles to save Isaac, his world is further upended by a dark and alluring client who aims to tempt him away from his messy life. Torn between his commitment to Isaac and the pain-numbing escapism offered by his client, Marc is forced to choose between the lesser of two evils while confronting his twin demons of past addiction and guilt over the death of his first lover.

Inspired by events that forced the author and his partner to emigrate from the United States because of marriage inequality, TheFitful Sleep of Immigrants is an extraordinary and timely tale about the value of family and friendship, loyalty, and love in the face of adversity.

And check out my Los Angeles Times interview with Orlando Ortega-Medina that was published online on April 18.

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IN OTHER NEWS...

I am delighted to announce that Forest Avenue Press has acquired my novel, Chicano Frankenstein, for publication in fall 2024. This is a description of my book:

Chicano Frankenstein addresses issues of belonging and assimilation through a modern retelling of the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley classic. An unnamed paralegal, brought back to life through a controversial process, maneuvers through a near-future world that both needs and resents him. As the United States president spouts anti-reanimation rhetoric and giant pharmaceutical companies rake in profits, the man falls in love with lawyer Faustina Godínez. His world expands as he meets her network of family and friends, setting him on a course to discover his first-life history, which the reanimation process erased. With elements of science fiction, horror, political satire and romance, Chicano Frankenstein confronts our nation’s bigotries and the question of what it truly means to be human.

You may read the official announcement here. 

“How to Date a Flying Mexican” comes to LibroMobile on April 30

 

LibroMobile Virtually Presents How to Date a Flying Mexican: New and Collected Stories (University of Nevada Press) by Daniel A. Olivas. The presentation will include a discussion with the author of his new short-story collection and audience participation with Q&A. His new book is a collection of stories derived from Chicano and Mexican culture but ranging through fascinating literary worlds of magical realism, fairy tales, fables, and dystopian futures. The characters confront—both directly and obliquely—questions of morality, justice, and self-determination.

Note that April 30 is also Independent Bookstore Day, so what better way to celebrate than to attend an event sponsored by an independent bookstore like LibroMobile?

This is a FREE event but remember to register to save your spot! Visit this link for details.

PRAISE FOR HOW TO DATE A FLYING MEXICAN

Featured in Poets & Writers' Page One roundup of New and Newsworthy Books.

"His new collection of short fiction ... is at turns comic and tragic, and perhaps most poignant when it is both. Employing a range of genres and modes including dystopian science fiction, magical realism, and parable, Olivas uses a whimsical hand to tug at deeper truths about identity and society." —David Nilsen, On the Seawall

"How to Date a Flying Mexican is a beautifully realized work that comes out of the depths of the Mexican and Mexican American cultural experience." —Michael Nava, Los Angeles Review of Books

"Throughout all of his stories, there are strong Chicano characters, who embody tales that range from the laugh-out-loud funny to the heartbreaking. A timely retrospective from an important voice in Latinx literature." —Wendy J. Fox, BuzzFeed

"Prompted by tragedy—the death of his father and the pandemic—Olivas revisits decades of writing to produce this collection of new and previously published stories. Olivas’s work is surreal, dystopian, critical, and introspective, ultimately moving into contemporary political rhetoric." —Alta Journal

ABOUT LIBROMOBILE

LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC) is a small sized, hybrid nonprofit organization established in 2016 by local author Sarah Rafael García in Santa Ana, California. It was initiated through support from its fiscal agent Red Salmon Arts, a partner hybrid nonprofit organization based in Austin, Texas, and a five thousand dollar Investing in the Arts Grant by the City of Santa Ana. Although started with a minimal amount of funding, the hybrid nonprofit organization serves as the only literary arts cultural center for approximately 300K+ residents in the City of Santa Ana of which 80% are Latina/o/x as part of Orange County that is 60% people of color.

Over the first two years, LMAC tended the community as a curbside vendor selling books and hosting free literary readings and workshops via partnerships with established art spaces, local businesses, national literary grants to pay writers, and special public events. Since 2017, it has been housed at two different brick-and-mortar venues: the first being a public stairway that served as a temporary space for 11 months funded by a patron and the second a 190sqft warehouse in downtown Santa Ana that has consisted of annual lease renewals since January 2018 paid by profits. LMAC continues to be mobile while sustaining general operating costs at the 190 sq. ft. warehouse space. One organizational goal is to reinvest profits into the local artists of color and business economy. Over the years LMAC has fulfilled García’s mission of “cultivating diversity through literature and the arts” to the residents of Santa Ana and Orange County. Today (2021), LMAC is focusing more than ever on audience engagement and book sales to increase assets, while seeking to expand its reach beyond the city as an established BIPOC-led cultural center in Orange County and institute a new mission statement.