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by guest-contributorLucrecia Guerrero

Lucrecia Guerrero

            Saturday,October 13, 7:00 p.m. Melinda Palacio, award-winning writer and a regularcontributor to La Bloga, will appearat the “Writing Out Loud” author series at the Michigan City Public Library inMichigan City, Indiana.    This is the“Writing Out Loud” program’s twenty-eighth season and has, in the past,featured writers such as Frank Delaney, Joyce Carol Oates, Gwendolyn Brooks,Jane Hamilton, and Andrew Greeley. Robin Kohn, thelibrary’s public relations and programming director, recently stated in The News Dispatch that she believes “eachof the authors for this year’s program has demonstrated relevance to an area ofpublic interest—including regional politics, history and current popculture.”   Melinda’s novel Ocotillo Dreams, set in Chandler,Arizona during the migrant sweeps of 1997, fits nicely into Kohn’s descriptionof this year’s lineup of authors.               It is certainly heartening to know thatfor the last two years, Kohn has included U.S. Latina writers.  This year Melinda Palacio presents, andlast year I was one of the featured authors.  After an interview by Dr. Jane Rose, I introduced my novel Tree of Sighs, set in the Southwest andMidwest.  This year, Robininvited me to interview Melinda Palacio before her presentation.  I eagerly accepted for I’m quitefamiliar with Melinda’s work and admire her writing, not only her prose but herpoetry.             Melinda’sOcotillo Dreams and my Tree of Sighs were both published byASU’s Bilingual Press in 2011, and that is how Melinda and I came to beacquainted.  Shortly after beingintroduced via email, Melinda invited me to join her at a reading at theTattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Colorado.  Our relationship as writer-supporting-writer and as personalfriends has steadily grown. 

Lucrecia Guerrero and Melinda Palacio at the Tattered Cover

            Forsome of the audience at the Michigan City Library event, this may be theirintroduction to Melinda’s writing. But I’m sure it won’t be the last that they hear from this talentedauthor.  Melinda holds aB.A. from UC Berkeley and an M.A. from UC Santa Cruz.  A 2007 Pen Center Emerging Voices Fellow, Melinda was morerecently named a Top Ten New Latino Author of 2012 by Latino Stories.  Melinda’s chapbook FolsomLockdown won the Kulupi Press 2009 Sense of Place Award.  OcotilloDreams won the Mariposa Award for the Best First Book at the 14^thAnnual Latino Book Awards 2012 and a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award.  HowFire is a Story, Waiting a full-length book of poetry forthcoming from Tia ChuchaPress, has garnered a blurb from none other than Juan Felipe Herrera,California’s Poet Laureate 2012. He concludes an amazing quotation with these words:  “I don’t think there is anything likethis book.  ¡Brilliantísima!” NeedI say more? Melinda alwaysdelivers a powerful reading, so her audience at the “Writing Out Loud” programwill not be disappointed.  Andduring the interview I will ask Melinda questions about Folsom Lockdown, OcotilloDreams, and How Fire Is a Story,Waiting, allowing the audience to learn more about her creative process.    
Lucrecia Guerrero grew up on theU.S./Mexico border but has lived and taught in the Midwest for years.  She holds an M.A. in English and anM.F.A. in Creative Writing.  Herstories have been published in journals such as The Antioch Review. Chasing Shadows, her collection of linked short stories waspublished by Chronicle Books in 2000. Tree of Sighs, her debut novel,was published by Bilingual Press in 2011. Tree of Sighs was awarded aChristopher Isherwood Foundation Award and the Premio Aztlán Literary Award.