October 2014: Carmen Tafolla, author of This River Here: Poems of San Antonio, published by Wings Press
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About the Book:
This River Here: Poems of San Antonio
By Carmen Tafolla
Published by Wings Press
ISBN-13: 978-1609403997
San Antonio Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla captures her hometown — the city of her ancestors for the past three centuries — in poems that celebrate its history as a cosmopolitan multilingual cultural crossroads. Discover San Antonio’s corazón in Tafolla’s poetry, accompanied by historic and contemporary photographs that convey its enduring sense of place.
The little river that has charmed so many rises at “the biological hub of the northern half of this hemisphere” (Dr. Karen Stothert) in a spring that Frederick Law Olmsted described as being “among the gems of the natural world.” A century ago, San Antonio gave Oscar Wilde “a thrill of strange pleasure.” J. Frank Dobie claimed that “every Texan has two hometowns — his own and San Antonio,” and Will Rogers declared it to be “one of the three unique cities of America.” To Larry McMurtry, “San Antonio has kept an ambiance that all the rest of our cities lack.”
Carmen Tafolla calls forth the soul of this place — the holy home of the waters, called Yanaguana by los Indios — and celebrates the many cultures that have made of it “un rebozo bordado de culturas y colores.”
About the Author:
Carmen Tafolla
The internationally renowned author of more than twenty books and one of the most highly anthologized of Latina writers, Dr. Carmen Tafolla has published an impressive array of works for both children and adults, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious Americas Award, presented to her at the Library of Congress in 2010, five International Latino Book Awards, two Tomas Rivera Book Awards, two ALA Notable Books, a Charlotte Zolotow, the Art of Peace Award, Top Ten Books for Babies, and recognition by the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies for work which “gives voice to the peoples and cultures of this land.”
Named in 2012 by Mayor Julian Castro as the first Poet Laureate of the City of San Antonio, Tafolla has been called a “world-class writer” by Roots author Alex Haley, and has long been considered one of the madrinas of Chicana Literature. She is currently at work on the adult biography of early civil rights organizer Emma Tenayuca.