Mora Award Judging

I'm grateful to the five dedicated REFORMA members who are currently busy reading the 2012 Estela and Raúl Mora Award  applications. Each application conveys the commitment of librarians, educators and community members willing to invest their resources and talents in spreading bookjoy, alegría en los libros. It's exciting to report that this year, we have 16 applications from 9 states: AZ,CA, CO, FL, IL, NM, NY, TX, WA. We'll announce the winner in October. I applaud and am deeply grateful to each institution that hosted a Día celebration and that took the time to submit an application. I am also, of course, grateful to the judges.

The Moon and a Poem

Love the moon? I do, especially on full-moon nights. I tend to feel a bit stunned by the beauty of that celestial radiance. Wanted to share this picture of the moon rising above the Santa Fe hills recently. Here's a companion poem from my book BORDERS(1986). Though hard, the moon seems such a benevolent body of light.




                 







Home

It only happened once
spinning in the desert white
with moonlight, glancing down,
rabbits, snakes, small burrowing owls
in a circle round her bare feet,
stretching too toward the moon,
snakes charmed by silent music.


Closing her eyes, feeling the pull
as they spun round
her knee, breasts, touching
her long hair, circling higher
in a funnel through which she rose
pushing upward, upward, grazing stars
with her fingertips and toes
her body light
finally curling on the moon
which circled round her
while she slept, slipped her
softly on the desert floor at dawn.

                              by Pat Mora ©  

Creativity Salon: an Interview With Poet Malena Mörling

Welcome to Bookjoy Creativity Salon, Malena! It's exciting to interview a Swedish poet now living where I do in Santa Fe, NM. I met you thanks to poet Janice Gould who was recently part of our salon. It has been such a pleasure to read fine poems in your first book Ocean Avenue. I look forward to savoring Astoria, your second book. Malena, please tell us a bit about yourself. What are you doing in New Mexico?

I live here--my family and I have lived here now for five years, which is the longest we have ever lived anywhere continuously. We came to Santa Fe in the fall of 2007 when I was invited to be a writer-in-residence at The School For Advanced Research for the school year. It became clear to us fairly soon after we arrived, that Santa Fe felt like a place where we could work, live and be. And leaving simply became impossible as the year went on. It was the first time in years that I for instance, felt perfectly at home. It is a wonderful thing to feel after years of feeling uprooted and being on the move.

You are a poet, translator, professor and mom. I’m always interested in how a busy woman creates time for her creative writing. How do you do that?
I am not entirely sure how to do anything, nor how I do and have done things. Every day is a different experience, and so is the experience of writing as well. Every time I write a poem it occurs in a different way. Writing has become a seamless part of my life, of who I am. Sometimes I write while I am doing other things, thinking about other things. Because a poem often appears when I least expect it, it is like, while out walking, coming upon a street performer after turning a corner. Every time I write something it occurs in a different way, at a different time--I think that is, in a way, what I love about writing and living. The uncertainty and the unpredictability of just how or when a poem might present itself.

 I don’t believe I’ve interviewed a translator before. How did that practice and talent evolve? What is a key challenge of translation for you?
I did not plan to begin translating. When I was an undergraduate, I was obsessed with a book of poems--it was 1933 by Philip Levine. I think he was the first living poet that I read. I must have read his book some 59 times or so and that 59th time I was reading it, I was traveling on an airplane, flying back to New York from Copenhagen and I began to hear the poems in my mind in Swedish. Maybe it was because I was still thinking in Swedish then, after having spent some weeks in Sweden. Anyway, I just wrote down the poems in Swedish next to the English originals in the book. They were quick first drafts--that I then revised for years. I just published my translation of that book in Sweden last summer. But that is how I began translating. I think one of the greatest challenges of translating is to make a poem as good or perhaps even better in the language you are translating it into, to honor, if not always the precise meaning of a poem, but maybe the urgency and or the arc of its lyrical voice. And if not that, then to attempt to bring across some other aspect of it like the formal structure, or maybe the distinct music of a poem.

And how does it feel to be a translator of Tomas Transtömer, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature?
Oh, I was so beyond myself excited that Tomas received the Nobel Prize--he is such a profoundly resonant and influential poet. He is the most translated European poet--he has been translated into over 60 languages and has, what is unusual, a global literary presence. I also believe that I heard that he is the most translated poet into English--after Rumi, Rilke and Neruda. So I am just one of many who translate him, it is wonderful, wonderful work because I love it and I inevitably learn so much from it.

You’ve translated from Swedish to English and English to Swedish. Was one more difficult than the other?

Since I have now lived in the US more than twice as long as I lived in Sweden and since I write mostly in English, it has become a little easier for me to translate from Swedish to English than the other way around.

I’m always curious to savor the first lines of a book, the entering into a space created of words. The first lines of Ocean Avenue are such a pleasurable reading experience:
          In the shape of a human body
          I am visiting the earth;
Is there another shape in which you’d like to visit the earth?
Maybe a tree. It appeals to me to be a tree--to be rooted in the earth. Is it not what we all in a way long for? To be more rooted, more grounded in our own experience? Also maybe a mountain, that would be cool or conversely a bird since I imagine that it would be incredible to fly.

Like all good poems, yours invite re-reading and sharing. I was keenly aware of how attentive you can be: of yourself, your surroundings, and of our physical impermanence, of death. Yet, there is a quiet hopefulness in your poems as in “Three Daffodils”:
          but in the end we feed
          the earth with ourselves.
Do you sense your hopefulness?
Yes, I do. I think that I am in a sense, pretty much hopelessly hopeful. I think that I somewhere along the way must have consciously decided to be hopeful--I feel that the human world is much too negative to have yet another person contributing to its negativity. I once had a vision that what we do here in this universe does not simply occur in the space of it--it helps create it--is a seamless part of it, as much as anything else is an equal and seamless part of it.

What is particularly challenging about teaching poetry?
Possibly that I don’t quite believe in the idea or the possibility of teaching anyone anything. That teaching is not about teaching but about something else. That it is more a matter of sharing poetry and somehow engaging the students in such a way that they themselves begin to ask themselves and the world the kind of questions that are pointed enough and evocative enough to provide them with inspiration to continue reading and writing.

Has being Swedish influenced your work even when you’re not writing about anything connected with Sweden?
I am sure it has since I believe that nothing is without effect, as Somerset Maugham wrote In the Razor’s Edge. I believe that what we write is inevitably and seamlessly connected to who are, what we have experienced and so on.

Were you always a reader and did you always enjoy reading poetry?
I grew up loving to read--but never poetry, I read fiction quite steadily. I never read poetry until after I left Sweden and I went to High School in the US and my English teacher decided one day to read aloud to us T.S. Eliot’s, “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrok.” While he was reading the poem, I fell in love with poetry--I thought it was the most profoundly beautiful thing I had ever heard. I could not believe my ears, that experience changed me. That day I knew that I was going to spend my life writing poems in English, that that was what I was going to do with my life.

Visit Malena's website.

Talking About a Writing Career

This summer, Cynthia Leitich Smith began a series of "Career Builders" interviews on her Cynsations blog. This week Pat is featured talking about creativity, a writing life, success and future goals.

There's also a 4 book giveaway so stop by now.

SCBWI Announces New Award for Diverse Writers & Illustrators of Children's Books

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) announced the creation of the On-The-Verge Emerging Voices Award at their 41st Annual Conference in Los Angeles. The annual award, established by SCBWI and funded by Martin and Sue Schmitt, will be given to two writers or illustrators who are from ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds that are traditionally under-represented in children’s literature in America and who have a ready-to-submit completed work for children. The purpose of the grant is to inspire and further the emergence of diverse writers and illustrators of children’s books.

Poetry, Inclusivity, and Creativity in Classrooms

Last month, I spoke at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Dr. Linda Pavonetti had invited me to visit her class, “The Author’s & Illustrator’s Art & Craft.” I was intrigued by the concept for the class. The masters students in education study the work of the visiting authors, illustrators, editors, etc. prior to the lecturer’s arrival. On the day I visited, I used my book ZING! as the basis for my PowerPoint focusing first on my books of poetry and why it’s my favorite genre as a writer. Sadly, many teachers feel hesitant to teach poetry though it’s a fine way to foster delight in language and to strengthen our writing at any age. I also stressed the importance of being inclusive of all the various parts of ourselves and of enjoying diversity in literature, colleagues and students. A key theme of my remarks was the seven practices I propose in ZING! to help nurture creativity in ourselves, our colleagues, and our pupils.

Symbols for the seven creative practices of ZING!

My flight experiences on this trip were the worst of my life (the challenge of flying these days), BUT I so enjoyed part two of the class when, after meeting in groups, the students asked me many thought-provoking questions. As educators at all levels prepare for a new academic year, I wish them excitement as they prepare to foster creativity in themselves and their students. Life’s details, technology, etc. can snare us. I find it takes daily effort to value our unique inventiveness.

The application deadline for the 2012 Mora Award is approaching -- August 15. The Estela and Raúl Mora Award was established in 2000 by Pat Mora and her family to honor their parents and to motivate libraries to celebrate "Día," El día de los niños, El día de los libros/Children's Day, Book Day on April 30th. Members of REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking, Pat's partner throughout Día's history, serve as judges for the Award which consists of a check for $1,000 and a plaque donated by the Mora grandchildren.


Read application and guidelines.

Learn more about the award.

Yuyi Morales Reads Aloud, Part 2

Many of us like to promote linking children to books, languages and cultures día por día, day by day. Today is a special day since talented author and visual artist Yuyi Morales is generously sharing another of her creative videos with us. Yuyi is a great Día supporter.

In this video Yuyi reads El vuelode apolodoro (Apolodora's Flight) written and illustrated by Hugo Hiriart.



(View the first video of Yuyi reading aloud.)

Bookjoy Celebrations

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Yuyi Morales Reads Aloud

Many of us like to promote linking children to books, languages and cultures día por día, day by day. Today is a special day since talented author and visual artist Yuyi Morales is generously sharing one of her creative videos with us. Yuyi is a great Día supporter.



(In this video Yuyi reads Magic Dogs of the Volcanoes/Los perros magicos de los volcanoes, written by Manilo Argueta and illustrated by Elly Simmons, published by Children's Book Press.)

Creativity Salon: an Interview with Metal Artist Anna Jaquez

Anna Jaquez

Welcome to my Bookjoy Creativity Salon, Anna. You and I are both from El Paso, and you teach art at UTEP where I taught part-time and was an administrator. I feel so fortunate to have met you on recent visits and am amazed by the art you produce. Miniatures in metal, no less. I can’t fully express how honored I am that some of your pieces are based in my poems. The whole notion leaves me a bit breathless.

Please begin by briefly introducing yourself.

AJ: I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas shortly after my parents migrated from Mexico. I am a life long resident of El Paso where I graduated from UTEP with a BFA then MA in Metals, then went on to receive an MFA from NMSU in 1993. I am now an artist and a lecturer at UTEP, active in several art organizations.

Have you always thought of yourself as creative?

AJ: The word “creative” is problematic for me because it can be intimidating for what it represents. I remember feeling envious of my siblings’ artistic creativity when my mother would challenge us to draw and color a picture to see who could create the most beautiful piece. I would sit and stare at the blank white page, afraid of ruining the perfect white paper with my “uncreative” marks, a frustration that follows me to this day.

How do you nurture your creativity?

AJ: Nature often incites the flame of creativity, but music, poetry, and exploring other visual artists’ work helps focus my inspiration and nurture my creativity.

What are your challenges in your creativity practices?  Is fear an element?

AJ: I always fear that things will not progress smoothly, since failure with a technique can destroy the creative process or omission of the minutest details can adversely affect its creative impact.

Do you have a space that helps you be more creative?

AJ: I do have a few spaces throughout my house that are important in recharging my spirit, yet aside from feeding the spirit, an artist must have a workable space to accomplish what he/her sets out to do, and despite the tiny 12’x 16’ space, my backyard studio is quiet, well lit, and comfortable.

We’re including your pieces based on my poems. Can you tell us which poems, your titles for the pieces, and how you decided to create these them? What was the process?

AJ: “There Was a Woman”(from Agua Santa: Holy Water) left me with a desire to make a visual interpretation of the overwhelming essence of lemon and woman as envy incarnate. The idea for Limonacida evolved from countless readings of the poem to help identify the kind of imagery necessary to convey my view of the poem. I knew I wanted to incorporate the luscious yellow fruit cradled in hands throughout the tree; however, the concept for the squeezed half lemons was an after thought, to exaggerate the lemons to a point where the viewer could practically smell and taste them. The dark overtones of the knives refers to the woman’s piercing and cutting attitude, while the mountain of sucked lemons alludes to her rotting teeth – victims of acidic excess.

Limonacida

In contrast, Colibri Argentina: Argollada is a much softer approach. I relate to “Pajarita” (from Borders) because of how I see my own mother and how she seems to defy all the odds in her daily battle against Diabetes. Despite her tired, frail body, she continues to live as the woman described in the poem, quietly and subtly enjoying life’s small pleasures.

I love the puissance of the cage analogy, and how in my mother’s case, her home is a place of confining security. Even after my father’s passing, my mother seems to demonstrate her newfound liberty yet continues to be confined in the same cage.

Colibri Argentina:  Argollada

What is your advice to people who doubt their artistic ability?

AJ: Stephen Vollmer once told me, “I don’t believe there is any bad art, it is simply a stepping stone for the next piece.” Express your creativity, since you never know where your stepping-stones will lead.

May 19, Pat @ Pen Your Own Adventures - Stories to Our Children

Families celebrating moms writing their life stories? How fortunate I felt to be part of such a positive literacy celebration! Many of the moms were Spanish-speaking and felt so proud that their families were at a party to honor these new writers. The room was decorated, the food line was popular, but what made the event unique was that mothers were proudly carrying the stories they’d written and illustrated. And imagine! The dedicated staff of Arlington Public Library (TX) had typed the stories, scanned the art, and produced a hard-back book that’s now part of the library’s collection. The more I listened to the staff talk about the program, Arlington Reads, the more impressed I was by the vision of this library system to be a literacy leader in its community. How I treasure such creative literacy leaders.


Savor summer reading!