Book Group Expo 2006 presents The Latino Experience: Writing, Reading, and Talking About America's Largest Minority Population with moderator Kathi Kamen Goldmark featuring panelist Luis Alberto Urrea in conversation with Oscar Villalo.
Part salon, part marketplace, and part marvelous party, Book Group Expo brings together a wide variety of book lovers, and authors under one roof. The Expo is an opportunity for the thousands of serious readers and book group members from throughout the Bay Area to experience a unique interactive program built around reading and discussing literature.
Bio
Kathi Kamen Goldmark
Kathi Kamen Goldmark is the author of And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You and a contributor to Single Woman of a Certain Age, and My California: Journeys by Great Writers. She co-authors The Author Enablers, a monthly column in BookPage. Kathi is the founder of the all-author rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders, producer of the radio show West Coast Live, and Author Liaison for Book Group Expo.
Luis Alberto Urrea
Luis Alberto Urrea is an award-winning and critically acclaimed author of 11 books, including the national bestsellers, The Hummingbird's Daughter and The Devil's Highway. A 2005 Pulitzer Prize nonfiction finalist for The Devil's Highway, Urrea also won the 2006 Kiriyama Prize for fiction for The Hummingbird's Daughter.
A member of the Latino Literary Hall of Fame, Urrea has also earned a Lannan Literary Award, an American Book Award, a Christopher Award, and a Western States Book Award.
Oscar Villalon
Oscar Villalon has been the Book Editor for the San Francisco Chronicle since 2001. He has been with the paper since 1996, and has been Deputy Book Editor and a copy editor for Datebook. Oscar is a member of the jury for the Commonwealth Club's annual California Book Award and serves on the board of directors for the National Book Critics Circle, as well as on the advisory board for San Francisco's Litquake festival. He also does book commentary and reviews for public radio's "The California Report."
Urrea's description of the progression of Latino American writers' is compelling. He, and his contemporaries, paved the way for the younger generation of Latin American writers. The talk about the next step in the progression, including a multi-representational view of contemporary Latin Americans is neccessary in order for these writers to gain equal esteem and exposure as other American writers. It is interesting and unfortunate that Latino American writers are often snubbed by both American readers and South American readers alike.