Six Latina and two Latino writers at Southern Festival of Books this weekend

At least eight Latino writers will be at the Southern Festival of Books at Legislative Plaza in Nashville this weekend. Among the eight are two locals, Austin Peay prof Blas Falconer and Vanderbilt prof Lorraine López, who co-edited the book The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity. Falconer also co-edited Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets with Cuban-American author Helena Mesa, who will be appearing Saturday at the festival, as well.

In addition to all eight authors' individual presentations, five of them will be together on the The Other Latin@ panel Saturday from 10:00 to 11:30 in the Old Supreme Court Room.

More about the individual authors, their books, and their appearances at the Festival, below. In chronological order:

Teresa Dovalpage

Teresa Dovalpage was born in Havana, Cuba in 1966 and presently lives in Taos, New Mexico, where she teaches Spanish and literature at UNM-Taos. Teresa has a Ph.D. in Latin American literature and is the author of five novels — three in Spanish and two in English. She also has written a collection of short stories in Spanish and is a playwright.

Panel: Friday, 2:30-4:00 pm, Old Supreme Court Room; Sign: Friday, 4:00-4:30 pm, Signing Colonnade; Presentation: Saturday, 10:00-11:30 am, Old Supreme Court Room; Sign: Saturday, 11:30-12:00 noon, Signing Colonnade
Current Book: Habanera, A Portrait of a Cuban Family

Justin Torres

Justin Torres grew up in upstate New York, where this novel is set. His work has appeared in Granta, Tin House, and Glimmer Train. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is a recipient of the Rolón United States Artist Fellowship in Literature, and is now a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford. He has worked as a farmhand, a dog-walker, a creative writing teacher, and a bookseller.

Panel: Friday, 2:30-4:00 pm, Room 16; Sign: Friday, 4:00-4:30 pm, Signing Colonnade; Panel: Saturday, 9:30-11:00 am, Library Auditorium; Sign: Saturday, 11:00-11:30 am, Signing Colonnade
Current Book: We the Animals

Marisel Vera

Marisel Vera grew up in the barrio in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, where she was raised by Puerto Rican emigrant parents. One of six children, she was the first in her family to earn a college degree: a BA in Journalism from Northern Illinois University. She has won the Willow Review literary magazine fiction prize. In 2011, her unpublished coming-of-age novel, the Liberation of Carmela Lopez, was adapted into play form and directed by her daughter at Northwestern University. www.mariselvera.com

Panel: Friday, 2:30-4:00 pm, Old Supreme Court Room; Sign: Friday, 4:00-4:30 pm, Signing Colonnade
Current Book: If I Bring You Roses

Lisa D. Chavez

Lisa D. Chavez, a poet and memoirist who lives in the mountains of New Mexico. She has two books of poetry published, In an Angry Season and Destruction Bay and has had work included in such collections as Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets, The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, and Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing.

Presentation: Saturday, 10:00-11:30 am, Old Supreme Court Room; Sign: Saturday, 11:30-12:00 noon, Signing Colonnade
Current Book: In an Angry Season

Blas Falconer

Blas Falconer is a poet and teacher of English at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including Indiana Review, Green Mountains Review, and Cimarron Review. His chapbook of poems, The Perfect Hour, was published by Pleasure Boat Studio in 2006. A Question of Gravity and Light is his first book-length collection of poems. Read more at Chapter 16. Falconer's mother was born in Salinas, Puerto Rico. He says, "the lens through which I contemplate any subject has been shaped, specifically, by my history as a Puerto Rican growing up in Virginia, living in Nashville, and in that sense, will always reflect who I am and where I've come from—wherever that may be."

Presentation: Saturday, 10:00-11:30 am, Old Supreme Court Room; Sign: Saturday, 11:30-12:00 noon, Signing Colonnade
Current Books: The Other Latin@: Against a Singular Identity and Mentor & Muse: Essays From Poets to Poets

Lorraine López

Lorraine López - her short story collection, Soy la Avon Lady and Other Stories won the inaugural Miguel Marmól prize for fiction. Her second book, Call Me Henri, was awarded the Paterson Prize for Young Adult Literature, and her novel, The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters was a Borders/Las Comadres Selection for the month of November in 2008. López's short story collection, Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories was a Finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Prize in Fiction in 2010. Her most recent work is a novel, The Realm of Hungry Spirits, published by Grand Central Press in May, and a collection of essays, The Other Latin@, co-edited with Blas Falconer, which will be released fall 2011 from the University of Arizona Press. www.lorrainelopez.net

Presentation: Saturday, 10:00-11:30 am, Old Supreme Court Room; Sign: Saturday, 11:30-12:00 noon, Signing Colonnade; Panel: Friday, 2:30-4:00 pm, Old Supreme Court Room; Sign: Friday, 4:00-4:30 pm, Signing Colonnade
Current Books: The Realm of Hungry Spirits and The Other Latin@: Against a Singular Identity

Helena Mesa

Helena Mesa, born and raised in Pittsburgh to Cuban parents. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Barrow Street, Bat City Review, Indiana Review, Poet Lore, and Third Coast. She is currently co-editing a collection of essays, Mentor & Muse: Essays From Poets to Poets. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is an assistant professor of English at Albion College.

Presentation: Saturday, 10:00-11:30 am, Old Supreme Court Room; Sign: Saturday, 11:30-12:00 noon, Signing Colonnade
Current Books: The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity and Mentor & Muse: Essays From Poets to Poets

Sandra Gutierrez

Sandra Gutierrez grew up in the United States and Guatemala, is a journalist, food writer, culinary instructor, and recipe developer. She lives in Cary, North Carolina with her husband and their daughters. www.sandraskitchenstudio.com Her new book The New Southern-Latino Table merges Southern and Latin cooking. www.sandraskitchenstudio.com

Panel: Sunday, 12:00-1:30 pm, Room 30; Sign: Sunday, 1:30-2:00 pm, Signing Colonnade
Current Book: The New Southern-Latino Table