LISTEN TO
THE INTERVIEW |
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Length:
00:56:48
Size:
13.63 MB
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About the Interviewer
 Photo Credit:
Saverio Truglia
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Nora de Hoyos Comstock
President and CEO of Las Comadres para las Americas. She also is the national and international founder of the organization.
Nationally Las Comadres counts with approximately 15,000 members in over 100 cities and 28 states, as well as in Canada and London.
Several European countries will be added to the list in 2012.
Nora Comstock received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1982 in Educational Administration with an emphasis on community college management. She received a B.A. in History with a specialty in Latin America in 1974.
Dr. Comstock was born in Raymondville, Texas and moved to Austin in 1968. She has a set of adult twins. She lives in Austin with her husband of 27 years. |
Conversations with
Julia Amante, Lyn Di lorio
& Melinda Palacio
Julia Amante, author of Say You'll Be Mine
Women's fiction author, Julia Amante writes emotionally rich stories about family, love, and the passion of chasing and achieving life's goals. Julia has been a teacher, has presented workshops at the Latino Book and Family Festival, the Mexican-American Organization Foundation, the Latina Business Women Organization, as well as in colleges such as the University of California, Riverside, California State Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara City College. She is also currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing. But while away from the many speaking engagements and the publishing world of novels filled with imaginary characters, Julia is a proud mother and wife. As all mothers know, nothing can fill a woman with inspiration, joy, and fear like her children can. In her new novel, Say You'll Be Mine, Julia celebrates the beauty as well as the difficulties of motherhood.
 say you'll be mine
Isabel Gallegos is only a handshake away from living her dream life.
After years of putting everyones needs before her own, she's selling her family's vineyard and moving to a quiet cottage on the California coast. But just as she's about to seal the deal, a letter arrives from Argentina with shocking news: her beloved cousin hasdied and Isabel is now the sole guardian of three young children.
 Published by Grand Central Publishing |
Lyn di lorio, author of Outside the Bones
Lyn Di lorio Sandín grew up in Puerto Rico and came to the Mainland to attend Harvard University. She received her Master's degree from Stanford University's Creative Writing program and her Ph.D. in English from the University of California at Berkeley. She teaches Caribbean literature at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and the City College of New York. Outside the Bones was named Best Debut Novel on the 2011 Latinidad List. Lyn is now working on a second novel, which was runner-up for the 2011 Faulkner-Wisdom Novel-in-Progress Award.
 Outside the Bones
Fina is a big girl with a big mouth. She's the neighborhood bruja, or spirit worker as she likes to call herself, casting spells for her neighbors in Manhattan's Upper West Side. She can't believe it, though, when she puts an accidental fufu or spell on Chico, the irresistible trumpet player who lives upstairs...."We ain't on the island no more, we don't sacrifice in the mountains of Africa or Cuba; we do it in our apartments." But she needs help, so she'll do what it takes. All too soon she finds herself involved with a spirit whose quest for revenge can't be stopped.
 Published by Arte Publico Press
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Melinda Palacio, author of Ocotillo Dreams
 Melinda Palacio grew up in South-Central Los Angeles and now lives in Santa Barbara and New Orleans. She holds two degrees in Comparative Literature—a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a Master's from University of California-Santa Cruz.
She writes a column for La Bloga. She is a 2007 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2009 poetry alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications. Her poetry chapbook, Folsom Lockdown, is the Sense of Place winner, Kulupi Press, 2009. Arizona State University Bilingual Press published her first novel, Ocotillo Dreams, August 2011. La Bloga named Ocotillo Dreams a top pick of 2011. Tia Chucha Press will publish her forthcoming poetry book, How Fire Is A Story, Waiting. She is currently working on a new novel.
 Ocotillo Dreams
Set in Chandler, Arizona, during the city's infamous 1997 migrant sweeps, this riveting tale brings to life the social issues that arise from border policy and economic inequity. Palacio skillfully weaves a story of politics, intrigue, love, and trust in a community that is suspicious of others. There she learns that her mother had lived a secret life of helping the undocumented workers. As she gets to know her mother from clues left behind, she grapples with issues of identity and belonging that lead her on a journey toward purpose in life and reconnection with her roots.
 Published by Bilingual Press |
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