Interview with Javier O. Huerta. Sunday, June 17th, 2012.

37: Javier O. Huerta, whose latest book, "American Copia," captures the American immigrant experience through stories about the everyday grocery shopping grind. Huerta also talks about how the book grew out of a sentence that was assigned to him during his naturalization process. Huerta, Daniel, and Ben also engage in a discussion about whether "bad poetry" can still be good poetry. This week's Poem of the Week is "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," read by Daniel Chacon. This week's Poetic License features a contribution by Ire'ne Lara Silva, who reflects on "The Necessity of Nakedness. www.irenelarasilva.webs.com

Javier O. Huerta is a Mexican-American and Chicano poet. His first book Some Clarifications y otros poemas (Arte Publico 2007) was awarded the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize from the University of California at Irvine. Personal background Huerta was born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico and immigrated to the United States with his mother and younger brother, crossing the Rio Grande river (Rio Bravo) in 1981. In 1986, he gained legal residency under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 and became a US citizen in January 2000 after serving four years in the United States Navy. As of 2012, he resides in the Bay Area, California. Professional background Huerta also studies the laughter of poetry in the English PhD program at the University of California at Berkeley, where he teaches the following courses, "Politics and Poetics of Refusal," "Documents and the Literature of the Undocumented," and "Laughter and Literature.

Ire’ne lara silva has lived in Austin, TX since 1998. In that time, she has participated in many readings, coordinated writing workshops and literary festivals, edited a few literary magazines, and participated/coordinated in events with Red Salmon Arts/Resistencia Bookstore, Austin Hispanic Writers, and the Lunada Poetry Series, among others. From 2004 to 2008, she was the Executive Coordinator for the Macondo Writing Workshop/Macondo Foundation. She and Moises S. L. Lara are currently co-coordinators for the Flor De Nopal Literary Festival (December 2012) http://flordenopalliteraryfestival.wordpress.com/ ire’ne is also leading the Voz te ‘Viento discussion series on diabetes, illness, healing, and creativity: http://vozteviento.wordpress.com/