Old Irving Park Book Club

I was recently hosted by the lovely ladies at the Old Irving Park Book Club -- a great time was had by all!

Upcoming gigs!

April 22: Prairie State College.

May 6-9: Festival de la Palabra in San Juan, Puerto Rico.


May 20-22: Brooklyn Book Festival.

I'll try to post details as we get nearer to each event!

New story

"Kimberle" has been published only in Cuba (in Aguas & Otros Cuentos) but read at last year's Chicago Humanities Festival. I did a presentation with the amazing Mark Doty that was video taped and just went up on YouTube.

Travel by Books

Wow -- what a curious and interesting way to look at reading. This blogger logged 92 countries worth of reading in 2009 -- and I'm there representing Cuba, natch.

Ft. Lauderdale in March!

Huge fundraiser for the Broward County Library -- I'll be joining a terrific list of writers too!

Biblio Buffet

Super sweet review!



There is a line at the beginning of Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea that goes “. . . after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky . . .”

Most of the friends who sit in the humid Havana evenings playing dominos with him think Usnavy Martín Leyva is salao. He is poor. His wife is not exactly simpatico. His teenage daughter is, well, a teenage girl. His apartment is crumbling under the weight of years of neglect and some illegal, ill-advised construction by the people who live above him. Really, it’s just a matter of time until the building is in ruins. His life is teetering on the brink of ruin itself.

To read the rest, check out Biblio Buffet!

CCA

Currently in Chicago but I'll be headed back to Oakland for the season just in time for a reading at the California College of the Arts of Friday, January 22. I love doing presentations in art schools -- students always have a surprising and provocative take on things!