Interview with Lucrecia Guerrero. Sunday, May 13th, 2012.

32: Ben & Daniel talk with Lucrecia Guerrero, author of "Tree of Sighs," a book which won Guerrero the 2012 Premio Aztlan, a national literary prize awarded to emerging Chicana & Chicano authors. Guerrero talks about what inspires her characters as well as the mostly-male Chicano writers who have influenced her. Guerrero also shares her reading wish list. 

The Poem of the Week comes from another prize winner, Laurie Ann Guerrero. Guerrero is the most recent recipient of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize. Daniel reads the poem "Preparing the Tongue" from Guerrero's collection "A Tongue in the Mouth of Dying." 

Lucrecia Guerrero's short stories have appeared in literary journals such as The Antioch Review and The Louisville Review. CHASING SHADOWS, her collection of linked short stories was published by Chronicle Books in 2000. TREE of SIGHS, 2011, was published by Bilingual Press. She is the recipient of awards from the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, Montgomery County Cultural Awards and residencies from Hedgebrook for Women, New York Mills, and Fundacion Valparaiso. Guerrero holds an MFA from Spalding University and enjoys facilitating writers' workshops. She grew up in Nogales, Arizona on the U.S.-Mexico border but has lived in the Midwest for years. 

(Taken from http://www.thelatinoauthor.com/authors/G/Lucrecia_Guerrero/ )

Interview with Cristina García. Sunday, January 29th, 2012.

18: Cristina Garcia talks about her young adult novel, “Girls with Significant Dreams,” and about her decision to tackle the popular YA genre. She also talks about her more adult novel, “Lady Matador’s Motel,” and how some real-life experiences inspired its writing.

The poem of the week is Arthur Sze’s “Written the Day I was to Begin a Residency at the State Penitentiary,” from his collection “The Redshifting Web.” Read by Benjamin Saenz.

And in this week’s Poetic License, Daniel Chacon explores imagination and alternate universes.



Cristina García is the author of five novels: Dreaming in Cuban, The Agüero Sisters, Monkey Hunting, A Handbook to Luck, and The Lady Matador’s Hotel, recently published by Scribner. García has edited two anthologies, Cubanísimo: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Cuban Literature and Bordering Fires: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicano/a Literature. Two works for young readers, The Dog Who Loved the Moon, and I Wanna Be Your Shoebox were published in 2008. A collection of poetry, The Lesser Tragedy of Death, was published in 2010. Her newest work, Dreams of Significant Girls, is a young adult novel set in a Swiss boarding school in the 1970s.

García’s work has been nominated for a National Book Award and translated into fourteen languages. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and an NEA grant, among others. Recently, Garcia was a Visiting Professor at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas-Austin and teaches at Texas Tech University most spring semesters. This past fall, Garcia was a Visiting Professor at the University of Miami and will serve as University Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University-San Marcos from 2012-14.

(Taken from http://www.cristinagarcianovelist.com/ )

Holiday edition with UTEP Creative Writing Faculty. Sunday, December 25th, 2011.

13: It’s a special Holiday Edition of “Words on a Wire.” The faculty from the University of Texas at El Paso Creative Writing Department has gathered in the studio to share their holiday reflections.

Jeff Sirkin talks about his first experience with Christmas as a Jew.

Rosa Alcalá talks about why she is reconsidering her holiday traditions now that she has a daughter.

José de Piérola reads “Noche Buena,” which tells of how he celebrated Noche Buena in Perú and how his beliefs evolved over the years.

Sasha Pimentel Chacón shares her memories of trying to fly to Buenos Aires from Paris on Christmas Eve.

In “Santa’s Big Helper,” Lex Williford shares his memories of being a young boy at Christmastime after the death of his baby brother, and how it relates to his experience as an older father to young children.

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Benjamín Alire Saenz shares his early memories of Christmas and why the holiday means more to him later in life.

AND, In “Mr. Microphone,” Daniel Chacón shares a mall-shopping Christmas memory and why it had an impact on him and how he celebrates the holiday.