On Thursday April 10, Fresno, California will be hopping. Poet Lee Herrick of this many miles from desire and publisher of the literary journal In The Grove asked Daniel Chacón to guest-edit an issue. The result is this:
PákatelasAn Homage to Andrés Montoya
Andrés and Daniel were undergraduates at Fresno State together, roommates each typing with a wall between them, a poet and a fiction writer. Andrés' collection The Iceworker Sings (Bilingual Press) won the 1997 Chicano Literary Prize (UC Irvine), selected by Francisco X. Alarcón, which also went on to win a 2000 American Book Award.
Daniel tells me a lot of stories about Andrés still, almost a decade after his death in 1999 after a sudden bout with leukemia, which take place mostly as they walk or eat together, and this issue is dedicated to him. It includes his writing (never before seen) in epic-Chicano Whitmanian ambition, in a long poem titled Pákatelas, or, slang for "fruit packers."
The issue also includes writers and artists who have been influenced (directly, or in poetic conversation) by the late great poet: his family, father Malaquias Montoya (see the cover image above) and brother Maceo Montoya; his teachers Pulitzer winning poet Philip Levine, Steve Yarbrough and the infinitely graceful Corinne Clegg Hales; his friends and contemporaries American Book Award winner and activist poet Tim Z. Hernandez, Lee Herrick, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Sheryl Luna, Mike Medrano, Teresa Tezari; those who have been influenced by his poetics such as Oscar Bermeo, Craig Perez, the most kind David Hurst, y yo, y others, as well as an English-Spanish translation of some of the poems in iceworker sings by his dear friend and lovely activist poet Veronica Guajardo.
Many of these people are traveling from all over the country to be in Fresno, California, Andrés' home, to celebrate the man, the poetry, and the incredible yawp that came from his mouth to fill and make whole a song in ours.
Here's a blog where Daniel explains his editorial framework for the issue.
Here's an evolving site for the coming event, evolving because new writers and artists are signing up to be there every day.
If you're in Aztlán, I hope to see you there. April 10. FresNOOOOOOOO!
[ GO TO BLOG HOME ]
Daniel tells me a lot of stories about Andrés still, almost a decade after his death in 1999 after a sudden bout with leukemia, which take place mostly as they walk or eat together, and this issue is dedicated to him. It includes his writing (never before seen) in epic-Chicano Whitmanian ambition, in a long poem titled Pákatelas, or, slang for "fruit packers." The issue also includes writers and artists who have been influenced (directly, or in poetic conversation) by the late great poet: his family, father Malaquias Montoya (see the cover image above) and brother Maceo Montoya; his teachers Pulitzer winning poet Philip Levine, Steve Yarbrough and the infinitely graceful Corinne Clegg Hales; his friends and contemporaries American Book Award winner and activist poet Tim Z. Hernandez, Lee Herrick, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Sheryl Luna, Mike Medrano, Teresa Tezari; those who have been influenced by his poetics such as Oscar Bermeo, Craig Perez, the most kind David Hurst, y yo, y others, as well as an English-Spanish translation of some of the poems in iceworker sings by his dear friend and lovely activist poet Veronica Guajardo.
Many of these people are traveling from all over the country to be in Fresno, California, Andrés' home, to celebrate the man, the poetry, and the incredible yawp that came from his mouth to fill and make whole a song in ours.
Here's a blog where Daniel explains his editorial framework for the issue.
Here's an evolving site for the coming event, evolving because new writers and artists are signing up to be there every day.
If you're in Aztlán, I hope to see you there. April 10. FresNOOOOOOOO!
[ GO TO BLOG HOME ]
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