Latino Book Review Presents

Alfredo Ávalos is a cultural promoter, writer, and editor. He is a bridge-builder between literary communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. He is currently the community and culture coordinator at UNAM San Antonio and the founder of Letras en la Frontera. His work explores the borderlands as a living space of language, memory, and connection.

Ada Limón is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. She is the first Latina ever to hold this position. She is the author of several acclaimed collections, including Startlement: New and Selected Poems. Her work explores grief, wonder, tenderness, and what it means to be fully present on earth. 

Rayna Grande is an award-winning author. She is widely recognized as one of the most impactful voices of Latinx literature today. Her work explores migration, coming-of-age, and the complicated beauty of belonging.

Rossy Lima is a writer, scholar, translator, and community leader whose work has been published in multiple languages across several countries. She began her career in literature as an undocumented writer, and she is the Executive Director of Latino Book Review. Her poetry has been nationally acclaimed and has won a myriad of awards.

Carmen Tafolla is an educator, storyteller, artist, and scholar with a Ph.D. in bilingual education. She has written over 40 books and has presented her work in several continents. She was the first poet laureate of the city of San Antonio, the first Latina to be named president of the Texas Institute of Letters and she has been recognized with multiple awards. In this episode with Héctor Rendón, Carmen shares her experience of being bilingual and bicultural in the United States at a time when her language, culture, and history were forbidden by Texas law. She talks about growing up in the barrio, the inequities in education, her latest book, unjust laws, and much more.

Ana Castillo is a Chicana and feminist writer whose career has inspired people for several decades. She has received many awards for her writings, including the Fuller Award for Lifetime Achievement, and has been selected for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Her work has been the object of study for countless academic studies. In this interview with Héctor Rendón, Ana talks about the origins of her literary career, her indigenous roots, her book, Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home, and much more.

Diana Lopez is a graduate of the MFA program at Texas State University. She was a middle school teacher and a university professor. Her middle-grade books are read in schools across the United States. In this interview with Héctor Rendón, Diana talks about the state of children's literature within the Latinx community, the origin of her relationship with literature, her latest book Los Monstruos: Felice and the Wailing Woman, and much more.

Erika Denise Edwards is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at El Paso. She has conducted research about race and gender in Argentina and has been instrumental in reigniting the conversation of colorism and blackness in Latin America. She is the author of the book Hiding in Plain Sight: Black Women, the Law, and the Making of a White Argentine Republic published by the University of Alabama Press. In this interview with Héctor Rendón, Erika talks about the history of blackness in Argentina and some of the misleading myths about why there is a lack of black visibility in the country. She talks about colorism, white supremacy throughout Latin America, and much more.

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is a professor of creative writing at St. Mary's University in California. He is one of the founders of Undocupoets, an organization that helped remove the requirement of U.S. citizenship in several major first-book poetry awards. He is regarded as one of the most promising Latinx writers, and his work has been praised by multiple national outlets. In this interview with Hector Rendón, Marcelo shares how literature has become a passport in his life that has allowed him to navigate various worlds. He also talks about his current projects, and much more.

Manuel Muñoz is a first-generation college student who graduated from Harvard University and received his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Cornell University. He has also been recognized with multiple awards and is a professor at the University of Arizona. In this interview with Héctor Rendón, Manuel Muños shares about his life, his experience of working in the fields and his academic transition, his literary journey, and his most recent book, "The Consequences."