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 Carl Philips. Sunday, November 20th, 2011.

8: Ben & Daniel talk to American writer, Carl Phillips, whose latest book is "Double Shadow." He discusses why his natural restlessness works its way into his poems, and why he likes to incorporate a variety of styles into his works.

The Poem of the Week features excerpts from the memoir "Shortbread" by Sonja Livingston.

And this week's Poetic License is a counterpoint to last week's segment. Poet Liz Scheid talks about why she refuses to pay to see her work published with BlazeVOX Publishing.

Carl Phillips is the author of eleven books of poetry, including Speak Low (2009) and Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems 1986-2006. Other books include his translation of Sophocles's Philocetes(2003) and Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Life and Art of Poetry (2004). His new book, Double Shadow, has just been published by Farrar, Staus and Giroux. A finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, he has received honors that include the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the Theodore Roethke Memorial Foundation Poetry Award, the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry, an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Library of Congress. In 2006, he was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

(Taken from http://connotationpress.com/a-poetry-congeries-with-john-hoppenthaler/2010/july-2010/502-carl-phillips-poetry )

Interview with Francisco Aragon. Sunday, November 13th, 2011.

7: Ben & Daniel talk with Francisco Aragon, director of Letras Latinas at the Institute for Latino Studies, University of Notre Dame. He talks about how his time in Madrid inspired his writing, and why he created the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize.

The Poem of the Week is William Carlos Williams’ “At the Ballpark,” read by Benjamin Saenz.

And in this week’s Poetic License, Stacia M. Fleegel defends why she is ok with paying $250 to have her work published with BlazeVOX Publishing, a practice frowned upon by other writers.
A native of San Francisco, Francisco Aragón is the author of Glow of Our Sweat (Scapegoat Press) and Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press), as well as the editor of The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press. His work has appeared in various anthologies, including, Inventions of Farewell: A Book of Elegies (W.W. Norton & Company), American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement (University of Iowa Press), Evensong: Contemporary American Poets on Spirituality (Bottom Dog Press) and, Deep Travel: Contemporary American Poets Abroad (Ninebark Press). His poems and translations have appeared in various print and web publications, including, Chain, Crab Orchard Review, Chelsea, The Journal, the online journals, Jacket, Electronic Poetry Review, and Poetry Daily. Among his limited edition chapbooks are, Tertulia, (BOOKlyn). Aragón holds degrees in Spanish from the University of California at Berkeley and New York University, and an MA in English and an MFA in creative writing from the University of California at Davis and the University of Notre Dame, respectively. He is the director of Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS) at the University of Notre Dame. He is also the editor of Canto Cosas, a book series out of Bilingual Press that publishes Latino poetry. He is a member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop in San Antonio, TX and serves as a Vice President on the board of directors of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).

(Taken from http://franciscoaragon.net/ )

Interview with Chang-Rae Lee. Sunday, November 6th, 2011.

6: Daniel interviews friend & writer Chang-Rae Lee, author “Native Speaker” and “The Surrendered.” Find out why he chose a profession as a writer and professor, and why it isn’t pretentious to be emotionally involved in your work.

The Poem of the Week is Denise Levertov’s “In California During the Gulf War,” read by Benjamin Saenz.

And, in this week’s Poetic License, poet Michael Luis Medrano ponders the Second Book Blues.

Chang-rae Lee, the first Korean-American novelist to be published by a major press, focuses on the experiences of first-and second-generation immigrants. His novels explore the nuances of intergenerational relations, the problems of assimilation, and the relationship of culture and memory to identity. While these concerns link him to other contemporary Asian-American writers, Lee's fiction also draws heavily on other influences. Lee experiments with form in his first novel, Native Speaker, which is part detective story, part minimalist chronicle of a failing marriage, reminiscent of John Updike. His prose style has been compared to that of both John Cheever and Kazuo Ishiguro.

(Taken from http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4525/Lee-Chang-rae.html)

Interview with Sasha Pimentel Chacón. Sunday, October 16th, 2011.

3: An Interview with Sasha Pimentel Chacón

Our poem of the week is by Rick Barot (Read by Sasha Pimentel Chacón)

And this week, in our continuing series, “Poetic License,” Maceo Montoya
reflects on a writer finding a job.

Sasha Pimentel Chacón born in Manila and raised in Atlanta, Saudi Arabia and the NYC tri-state region, Sasha Pimentel Chacón is a Filipina-American poet and the author of Insides She Swallowed (2010), a book of poems on culture, immigration, food and the body. Her poems and essays have appeared in journals such as The American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Gulf Coast, Colorado Review and OCHO, and she is the recipient of a Philip Levine Fellowship and the Ernesto Trejo Prize. A multiple Pushcart Prize nominee, she lectures and performs around the country.
SHE HOLDS an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno and teaches as a Visiting Assistant Professor / Visiting Writer at the University of Texas at El Paso's Bilingual (Spanish-English) M.F.A. Program, for poets and writers from all over the Americas. Her research includes prosody, poetics, contemporary American poetry, and Asian American, Latina/Latino, immigrant, and women's literatures.
SHE CURRENTLY lives in El Paso, Texas, on the border of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico with her husband, fiction author Daniel Chacón, and their dogs Kafka and Sonnet.
(Taken from http://www.sashapimentel.com/ )

Interview with Farid Matuk. Sunday, October 9 th, 2011. 11:30 a.m.

2: An interview with Farid Matuk.

Our poem of the week is by Luis J. Rodriguez. (Read by Daniel Chacón)

And in this week’s “Poetic License,” Steven Church reflects writing and
raquet ball.

Farid Matuk was born in Peru but immigrated to the United States at the age of six. Caught between two different worlds, his experiences as an immigrant in America contributed to Matuk’s identity, worldview, and eventually writing. Later in life, his experiences with politics, family, and social issues eventually manifested themselves in Matuk’s first full collection of poetry, This Isa Nice Neighborhood. Today, Matuk resides in Texas with his partner, poet Susan Briante, and their daughter.

(Taken from https://sites.google.com/site/gallagheronpoetry2011/faridmatuk/biography)

Interview with Juan Felipe Herrera. Sunday, October 2d, 2011. 11:30 a.m.

1!: An Interview with Juan Felipe Herrera.

Our Poem of the week is poem by Carl Phillips. (Read by Benjamin Alire Sáenz )

"Poetic license", Lee Herrick, speaks about community.

Juan Felipe Herrera holds the Tomás Rivera endowed chair in creative writing at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of numerous poetry volumes, including Half of the World in Light; 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971-2007; Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream; and numerous children's books, including The Upside Down Boy, which was adapted into a musical in New York City; Laughing Out Loud, I Fly, winner of a Pura Belpré Honor; and Cinnamon Girl, winner of the Américas Award. He was also awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives and tours with the poet Margarita Luna Robles.