Breaking Through: A Conversation on Pathways to Publication for Latinx Writers

Free and open to the public

Join Gemini Ink on Friday, October 6th, to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month 2023 with a timely and intimate literary discussion about current publishing trends and Latinx representation in books.

This event features Latinx authors and publishers and provides a space to discuss how to break barriers and create pathways toward publication in a literary landscape where Latinx writers account for only 7% of published authors. Our guests will talk about how they navigated the publishing industry and illuminate how Latinx writers can forge a path toward sharing their own stories.  

Moderator:

Norma Elia Cantú recently served as the President of the American Folklore Society (2020-2022) and holds the Murchison Professorship of the Humanities at Trinity University. Her research and creative writing have earned her an international reputation. Her most recent publications include the co-edited anthologies: Teaching Gloria Anzaldúa: Pedagogies and Practices for our Classrooms and Communities and meXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction; the novel, Cabañuelas, and a poetry collection: Meditacion Fronteriza: Poems of Love, Life, and Labor. She has two forthcoming publications, Fiestas in Laredo: Matachines, Quinceañeras, and George Washington’s Birthday Celebration &; The Folklorico Dance Tradition in US Latinx Communities. She is at work on a collection of poems tentatively titled Remedios.

Panelists:

Cloud Delfina Cardona is a poet and visual artist from San Anto, Tejas. Cardona is the author of What Remains, winner of the 2020 Host Publications Chapbook Prize. She is the co-founder of Infrarrealista Review, a literary nonprofit dedicated to publishing Texan writers. Cardona’s poems can be found in Prairie Schooner, Los Angeles Review, The Boiler, Tinderbox, and more.

Eddie Vega (the Taco-Poet of Texas) is a poet, storyteller, educator, and Macondista. He is the author of Chicharra Chorus (FlowerSong Press, 2019) and recipient of the literary arts grant from the Luminaria Artist Foundation (2021). Last summer, he was named best local poet by the San Antonio Current and won two major head-to-head haiku contests. Most recently, he’s published a collection of poems written by South Texans entitled, Asina is How We Talk. Vega hosts The Mouth Dakota Poetry Project, a biweekly open mic in San Antonio, TX.

Katie Gutierrez is the author of the national bestselling, Edgar Award-nominated debut novel MORE THAN YOU’LL EVER KNOW, which was also a Good Morning America Book Club selection. She is a National Magazine Award finalist whose essays and features have appeared in TIME, Texas Highways, Harper’s Bazaar, and more, and acknowledged in Best American Magazine Writing and Best American Essays. She has an MFA from Texas State University and lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband and their two kids.