Participants this year include: Jimmy Santiago Baca, re-knowned poet and community activist whose HBO special, A Place to Stand will premiere this fall at the NHCC; Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez author of several successful novels for young adults; Rigoberto Gonzalez will address literary criticism and what goes into writing good book reviews; Demetria Martinez will be available for those interested in writing for social justice and constructing memoirs; Taos based journalist Katherine Córdova will address the challenges of modern journalism.
Nicolas Kanellos, publisher of Arte Público Press in Houston which has published major series on Latino literature that has been forgotten or gone out of print will address the advent of e-books and social media and what it means for emerging Latino writers. Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban will address writing the novel; Vincent Gutierrez of Los Angeles will address the methods and foibles of screenwriting for movies; Iñigo Moré, Spanish author of The Borders of Inequality: Where Wealth and Poverty Collide will visit from Madrid for the conference. His work focuses on countries which share labor needs and labor sources and what the remittances that result do for national economies and social relations..
In addition, editors and agents like Stephanie Von Borstel and Adriana Dominquez of Full Circle Literary Agency will join New York based Marcela Landres whose e-newsletter, Latinidad is a mainstay for many Latino writers. Michael Sedano, co-founder of the very successful blog, La Bloga will offer workshops on how writers and poets can best present their work before audiences. Other editors representing both academic and commercial presses will participate on panels and be available for consultations.
“For us this has been a decade of serving Latino writers…of connecting talent to opportunity,” say Carlos Vásquez founder of the conference and Director of History and Literary Arts at the NHCC.
While the cost of the three-day conference is $300, there are scholarships available for students enrolled in creative writing courses in New Mexico’s two and four years colleges. There are also a number of partial scholarships for community-based writers. For more information, contact Katie Trujillo at (505) 246-2261, ext. 148.
The conference has been held on the NHCC campus for ten years during which time many participants have had their work published or won contracts with both major and smaller presses. The conference has a limited enrollment to insure intimate contact between student and teacher.
The NHCC is non-profit institution and a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.