Gemini Ink and the Macondo Foundation’s joint First Friday reading brought in quite the crowd. Macondo writer Rachel Jennings and Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral 2009 award recipient Emmy Peréz read from their respective books of poetry and stayed following the event with Macondo Foundation founder Sandra Cisneros to sign copies of their works.

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Dr. Ben Olguin has written refereed articles in journals, anthologies, editorial review publications, and more, as well as the co-translated Cantos de Adolescencia/Songs of Youth by Américo Paredes and My Weapon is My Pen: raúlrsalinas’ Selected Writings from the Jail Machine (1963-1974).  Dr. Olguin currently works with Writers in Communities and Wood Middle School.

Dr. Olguin’s most recent publication is La Pinta: Chicana/o Prisoner Literature, Culture, and Politics (University of Texas Press, 2010).  He has several projects under review including the poetry collection Red Leather Gloves, which won First Runner Up 2007 Kent State University Wick Poetry Center Manuscript Prize; Finalist, 2007 & 2008 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Manuscript Prize; Finalist, 2008 May Swenson Poetry Manuscript Award; Semi-Finalist, 2008 Elixir Press Poetry Awards; Semi-Finalist, 2008 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Ben Olguin received his B.A. with honors from the University of Houston, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

For more information on Dr. Olguin’s publications, visit his University of Texas at San Antonio home page.

Book cart during Luminaria 2009. Photo by: Corey Leopold. CC. Some Rights Reserved.

We’re seeking books of all genres to pass out at San Antonio’s celebration of arts and artists, Luminaria. At last year’s event, Gemini Ink gave away over 3,000 donated books as part of Libro Libre. Help us do this again by dropping off your new or gently used books at our office, located at 513 S. Presa. Or, if you prefer call ahead and we can send someone to pick up the books for you. For more information, call 210.734.9673.

Gemini Ink and the Macondo Foundation team up for a special First Friday reading with Macondo writer Rachel Jennings and Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral 2009 award recipient Emmy Peréz. Macondo Foundation founder Sandra Cisneros will introduce both writers during the reading.

Rachel Jennings earned a B.A. from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and an M.A.and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2002, she received the Rockefeller Foundation Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. She has published poems in several publications, including La Voz de Esperanza, Appalachian Journal, Struggle, Blue Collar Review, RE:AL, Concho River Review, Red River Review, Nantahala Review, and the San Antonio Express-News. She published a chapbook, Hedge Ghosts, at LaNana Creek Press in 2003. In 2008, she published a book of poetry, Elijah’s Farm, at Pecan Grove Press. Currently, she teaches composition and literature at San Antonio College.

Emmy Pérez is the author of a poetry collection, Solstice (Swan Scythe Press, 2003). She holds degrees from Columbia University and the University of Southern California. Her work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, New York Quarterly, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Indiana Review, Crab Orchard Review, and the anthologies The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry and The Weight of Addition: an anthology of Texas Poetry. She is a contributing editor for The Writer’s Chronicle, Latino Poetry Review, and Texas Books in Review. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Texas-Pan American in the Rio Grande Valley.

What: First Friday Reading
When: Friday, Feb. 5, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Where: Gemini Ink, 513 S. Presa