Molly Molloy New Mexico State University Library Las Cruces, NM 88003
505-646-6931 mmolloy@lib.nmsu.edu http://lib.nmsu.edu/staff/mmolloy
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THE BORDER BOOK FESTIVAL
CELEBRATES LITERARY HARVEST
MARCH 7, 1997
LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Some of the Southwest's most celebrated writers --
Tony Hillerman, Rudolfo Anaya, Byrd Baylor and Sabine Ulibarri -- will be
honored at the Border Book Festival's gala event to be held at 7 p.m.
Friday, March 21.
Event organizers are encouraging the public to buy tickets early
because seating is limited to about 500 at the Rio Grande Theater. Tickets
are $10 for the Premio Fronterizo Award Tribute. Among the highlights of
the evening will be music by the Afro-Lat in folk band Sitarra, public
readings by the honored writers and dramatic scenes performed from their
novels, said Denise Chavez, artistic director of the festival.
"These writers are being honored for being the essence of
literature in the landscape they love," said Chavez, who is founder of the
festival and author of Face of an Angel. She will play the role of Ultima
in a scene from Anaya's Bless Me Ultima.
The awards are a new part of the third annual Border Book
Festival, which runs March 20-23 on the downtown mall. They honor the
lifelong literary contributions of Hillerman, a popular mystery writer;
Anaya, author of Alburquerque; Baylor, a children's au thor; and Ulibarri,
author of Mi Abuelita Fumaba Puros/My Grandmother Smoked Cigars.
Last year, more than 5,000 people turned out for the book lovers
and writers' party. The festival is a non-profit organization of mostly
volunteers dedicated to nurturing and celebrating the multicultural
heritage of the U.S.-Mexico border region. The fe stival features
workshops, panels, a children's center, a publishers' trade show,
storytelling and folk music. Festival workshops run year-round in area
schools.
"It's a great networking opportunity for writers," said Michelle
Holland, festival administrative director. "You meet a great community of
writers and talk to publishers."
In addition to the numerous writing workshops, a trade show of
more than 40 book sellers and publishers will run continuously at the
Branigan Museum of Fine Art and Culture. If people are interested in
buying a book or finding a publisher, visiting the t rade show should top
their list of things to do, Holland said.
The Emerging Voices program began last fall in area public middle
and high schools and in the Las Cruces Juvenile Probation Center. Local
poet Anne Marie Mackler, the Emerging Voices director, has worked with
visiting poets who conducted workshops throug hout the year in Las Cruces
and Gadsden high schools, as well as in the communities of Tortugas and
Garfield.
After a series of poetry workshops, the students wrote poetry that
will be published in Voces, a literary journal produced for the festival.
Many will read their works aloud at the festival. At the awards event on
Friday, an Emerging Voices writer will b e receive a festival scholarship
to New Mexico State University.
Conducting Emerging Voice workshops at the festival are local
poets Amy Lam and Jeff Barnett, historian and photographer Don Usner and
writer LouAnne Johnson, author of Dangerous Minds.
"There's an incredible community of gifted writers who have
enthusiasm and energy that make this festival possible," Holland said.
"This is a community event."
The festival is the brainchild of Chavez and Susan Tweit, author
of several books about Southwest flora and fauna. They organized the first
Border Book Festival in 1994. Their aim was to celebrate the region's
unique diversity and strengthen the writing community.
"Las Cruces is a hardworking city committed to the arts," said
Chavez, a native Las Crucen. "Things are really happening here. At the
festival, we are tireless promoters of literature."
The festival receives major support from the City of Las Cruces,
the Branigan Cultural Center, the Branigan Library and the Dona Ana Arts
Council. The festival receives grants from New Mexico Arts, the PNM
Foundation, the Witter Bynner Foundation and the McCune Foundation.
For program information about Border Book Festival events, most of
which require tickets, call its office at (505) 524-1499.
Border Book Festival Schedule of Events: March 20-23
Registration is required for most events. Call (505) 524-1499
Thursday, March 20
4 to 5:30 p.m. Emerging Voices readings. Branigan Cultural Center. Free.
Book signing and reception follows.
7 p.m. Elie Wiesel. Sponsored by the New Mexico State University Speaker
Series at the Pan American Center. Call 646-2005. Free.
Friday, March 21
Noon to 5 p.m. Trade Show of book publishers at the Branigan Museum of
Fine Art and Culture. Free.
12:45 to 2:45 p.m. Emerging Voices workshops for participants, students
and teachers involved in the program. Court Youth Center. Free.
3 to 4:15 p.m. Voices: Nearby. Rio Grande Theater. Free.
4:45 to 5:30 p.m. Another Planet: Voices from Las Cruces, N.M.
Performance of original writing, poetry and movement by local middle
school students. Rio Grande Theater. Free.
7 to 9 p.m. Premio Fronterizo Award Tribute and Sunshine Community
Service Award. Writers Tony Hillerman, Rudolfo Anaya, Byrd Baylor and
Sabine Ulibarri receive awards and read from their works. Bestina Sanchez
receives award for community service. Rio G rande Theater. $10.
Saturday, March 22
8:30 to 9:45 a.m. Information for Writers. Branigan Cultural Center
Shannon Room. Free.
9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Voces y Respuestas. New Hope Community Church. $7.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Trade Show. Branigan Museum of Fine Art and Culture.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mesilla Valley Tumblewords Writing Room. Mastery In
Life Center. Free.
10 to 11:30 a.m. Writing the Culture and Literature of the Southwest.
Branigan Library Room A/B. $7.
10 to Noon. Storytelling. Branigan Library. Free.
11 to 2 p.m. Book signing with local and guest writers. Branigan Museum
of Fine Art and Culture. Free.
11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Women Writing the West. Rio Grande Theater. $2.
11:30 to 12:45 p.m. Poetry, Community and Empowerment. Rio Grande Theater. $2.
11:30 to 12:45 p.m. Journals, Memoirs and Publication. New Hope Community
Church. $10.
12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Libros En Vivo/Books Alive. Moose Lodge. $1.
1 to 2 p.m. Performance of Desert Playfest Winner Train to
Czechoslovakia. Rio Grande Theater. $7.
2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Platica with Premio Fronterizo Award Winners. Rio
Grande Theater. $10.
3:45 to 5 p.m. Extraordinary Events in Ordinary Lives: Oral Histories in
Southern New Mexico and Texas. Branigan Library A/B. $10.
3:45 to 5 p.m. Storytelling with Olga Loya. Branigan Cultural Center
Shannon Room. Free.
3:45 to 5 p.m. Writing the Other: Fiction that Stretches Point of View.
New Hope Community Church. $10.
3:45 to 5 p.m. Showtime! Performing Your Work and Having Way Too Much
Fun. Las Cruces Community Theater. $10.
7 to 8:45 p.m. Voices: Southwest and Beyond. Rio Grande Theater. $10.
9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Pachanga Dance featuring The Mollys. Moose Lodge. $5.
Sunday, March 23
10 to 2 p.m. Trade Show. Branigan Museum of Fine Art and Culture. Free.
10 to 11:45 a.m. Writing for Children. Rio Grande Theater. $7.
10 to 11:45 a.m. Taking Your Poetic Pulse. Branigan Library A/B. $7.
1 to 2 p.m. Performance of Desert Playfest Winner Train to
Czechoslovakia. Rio Grande Theater. $7.
2:15 to 3:30 p.m. Mireille Marokvia and Writers Featured in Serape.
Branigan Cultural Center Shannon Room. $4.
2:15 to 3:30 p.m. Asian Americans Writing New Mexico. Branigan Library
Room A/B. $7.
3:45 to 5:30 p.m. New Mexico Poetry Invitational and Celebration. Way Out
West Restaurant in Mesilla. $6.
5:30 to 7 p.m. Dinner at Way Out West. $12.
7:30 to 9 p.m. Musica de la Gente, a concert. Rio Grande Theater. $10.
Border Book Festival Featured Writers
Rudolfo A. Anaya, fiction writer, essayist and playwright, is author of
Bless Me, Ultima, which won the 1971 Premio Quinto Sol; Tortuga, winner of
the 1976 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation; and
Alburquerque, recipient of the 1993 Fi ction Award from PEN-WEST. His
newest novel is the 1996 Rio Grande Fall. He is a professor emeritus at
the University of New Mexico, where he taught Chicano literature and
creative writing. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in
literature and a m aster's in guidance and counseling, all from UNM.
Byrd Baylor of Arivaca, Ariz., writes children's books. She wrote The Best
Town in the World, When Clay Sings and The Way to Start a Day. The Desert
is Theirs was her way of honoring the people who live with the land, and
Desert Voices was her way of hono ring the animals. If You Are a Hunter of
Fossils is about the connection people feel to creatures.
John Brandi of Corrales, N.M., has written more than 40 books on poetry,
travel vignettes and haiku. Recent books include Weeding the Cosmos:
Selected Haiku, Heartbeat Geography: Selected and Uncollected Poems and A
Question of Journey. He was in Ecuador during the upheavals of the '60s,
working in agrarian reform as a Peace Corps volunteer. Since then he has
supported himself as an itinerant poet and painter. His honors include an
NEA Fellowship in Poetry and a Witter Bynner Grant.
Lorna Dee Cervantes is a doctoral student at the University of
California-Santa Cruz and an assistant professor of English at the
University of Colorado-Boulder. Her bachelor's degree with honors in
creative writing came from San Jos‚ State University. She wrote Emplumada
(1981), winner of the American Book Award, an d From the Cables of
Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger (1991), winner of the Patterson Prize
for Poetry and the Latino Literature Award.
Tony Hillerman, a Southwest mystery writer, has extensive background in
journalism and is a decorated World War II veteran. His novel Skinwalkers
won the Anthony award in 1987, and his novel A Thief of Time won the
Macavity Award from Mystery Readers Inte rnational in 1988, as well as the
Department of the Interior Award in 1990. His novel Talking God won the
Media Award from the American Anthropological Association in 1990.
Hillerman received the Golden Spur award from the Western Writers in 1987,
a Speci al Friend of Dineh award from the Navajo Tribal Council in 1987,
the Grand Prix de LittŠrature PoliciŠre from France and the Ambassador
award from the Center for the Indian in 1992. He earned a B.A. at the
University of Oklahoma in 1948, an M.A. in Englis h at the University of
New Mexico in 1965 and holds two honorary doctorates.
Joan Logghe since 1989 has been poetry editor for Mothering magazine and
in 1991 received a National Endowment for the Arts in poetry. Her recent
chapbook Twenty Years in Bed with the Same Man was a finalist in the
Western States Book Award competition. I n 1966 she received the Academy
of American Poets collegiate award. As New Mexico Artist-in-Residence
since 1984, Logghe's has led many writing workshops.
Pat Mora is a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, where she
later was an instructor, administrator and museum director. She received a
1994 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and a
1986 Kellogg National Fellowship. Her poetry collection Communion won the
Southwest Book Award, as did her Borders and Chants. Her children's book
Pablo's Tree won the 1994 Am‚ricas Commended List, and A Birthday Basket
for Tia won the Southwest Book Award.
Nora Naranjo-Morse is a College of Santa Fe graduate whose clay sculptures
have been critically hailed for both their humor and their blending of
traditional and modern styles. In her newest work Mud Woman her talent as
a poet is also drawing praise. She has been named Artist in Residence at
the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Headlands Center for the Arts in
Saucelito, Calif.
Luis J. Rodriguez is the author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days
in L.A., which received the 1993 Carl Sandburg Prize for Nonfiction and
the 1994 Chicago Sun-Times First Prose Book Award. He was born in El Paso
in 1954 and raised in Los Angeles.
His books of poetry, Poems Across Pavement and The Concrete River,
received the Poetry Center Book Award from San Francisco State University
and the PEN West/Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence.
Benjamin Alire Saenz teaches creative writing at the University of Texas
at El Paso. He earned an M.A. in theology from the University of Louvain
in Belgium and an M.A. in creative writing from UTEP. He completed a Ph.D.
at Stanford University, which awar ded him a Wallace E. Stegner
Fellowship. His first book of poems, Calendar of Dust, won the Before
Columbus Foundation's American Book Award in 1992. Saenz was awarded a
Lannan Poetry Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation of Los Angeles.
Arthur Sze, a poet and second-generation Chinese American was born in New
York City and lives in Santa Fe, where he is a professor of creative
writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Sze has published five
books of poetry including Archipelago ( 1995), River River (1987) and The
Willow Wind (1972). Among his honors are an American Book Award in 1996
and a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1995.
Sabine R. Ulibarri earned a B.A. (1947) and M.A. (1949) in Spanish from
the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. in romance languages from the
University of California-Los Angeles. Ulibarri, one of the first bilingual
writers, is sometimes called the fath er of the short story in New Mexico.
He received an award for Promoting Hispanic Culture in 1980 from the
Federation of Latin American Clubs of Europe. The Government of Mexico
presented him with a medal for Promotion of Hispanic Culture in 1986. The
City of Quito, Ecuador, named Ulibarrˇ as its Distinguished Citizen in
1963 and again in 1964.
Kathleene West, a poet and associate professor of English at New Mexico
State University, holds an M.A. from the University of Washington and a
Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. A Fulbright fellowship
enabled her to live two years in Iceland , studying Icelandic language and
literature. She has published seven volumes of prose and poetry, including
Water Witching (1984) and The Farmer's Daughter (1988).