Spring, Issue 1

Welcome to our spring season! In addition to our line-up of creative writing courses, the Center is proud to introduce our community to two visiting writers, Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer, a moving memoir about life as a Hmong American, and prize-winning poet Benjamin Grossman, whose latest collection is Sweet Core Orchard.

Our reading initiatives, First Year in College and the African-American Read-in feature Reaching Up for Manhood and The Bluest Eye. Please consider reading these books, which are perfect for book clubs.

In May, you can look forward to the Writers Institute, four days of intensive instruction on all aspects of craft with respected authors who are coming from all over the country. The Writers Institute will again present the community favorite, Pitch-O-Rama. I invite all of you to attend and “pitch” your story idea to a panel of publishing professionals and other creative writing experts.

We look forward to sharing our new season with you.


Alina Interián
Executive Director
Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College

 

Chris Bohjalian, Skeletons at the Feast
8 p.m., February 18, 2009
Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables  
Bohjalian tells the story of two young lovers from different worlds – the daughter of Prussian aristocrats and her lover, a Scottish prisoner of war - struggling to survive in the last days of the Second World War, as they travel west through the remnants of the Third Reich to reach the British and American lines.
 
FLORIDA CENTER FOR THE LITERARY ARTS VISITING WRITER
Kao Kalia Yang, The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir
8 p.m., February 23, 2009
Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables
Yang recalls the harrowing story of her family’s captivity in Laos, the daring rescue by her father and uncles and eventual resettlement in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, where she was born. In addition to this public reading, Yang will work with students at Miami Dade College. Her participation in Center programs, is made possible in part by a partnership with Florida Literary Arts Coalition.
 
Ruth Behar, The Portable Island
8 p.m., February 26, 2009
Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables  
Behar tracks the diaspora of Cubans in this gathering of thoughts from Cuban writes, artists and thinkers contemplating the haunting impact of exile on their own lives.
 
FCLA co-presents author readings with Books and Books bookstore.
Details on this and future readings, www.booksandbooks.com

While FCLA visiting writer Kao Kalia Yang recalls the story of her family’s captivity in Laos and resettlement in a refugee camp in The Latehomecomer, the story of another Hmong family is told by Anne Fadiman in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, winner of the National Book Critic Circle Award for nonfiction. Fadiman writes of a Hmong family’s experience with the American health care system after their daughter, Lia Lee, is diagnosed with epilepsy. Fadiman weaves Lee’s personal journey with the history of the Hmong people in a book the Library Journal describes as a “riveting, cross-cultural medicine classic.”

If you liked Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, one of FCLA’s First Year in College reading selections, you might also enjoy this Nobel laureate’s lyrical novel, Song of Solomon, said to be one of President Barack Obama’s favorite novels. Song of Solomon traces the complex lives and backgrounds of four generations of black family life in the south in this poetic novel that has been described by critics as “rhapsodic” and “stunningly beautiful.”



Children, 3-7, and a parent or guardian can create their own picture book as part of the Story Time! family literacy series presented by FCLA and ArtCenter/South Florida.  The next session, featuring Lost and Found by Olive Jeffers, takes place from 2 to 4 p.m., February 14, at the Doral Branch of the Miami Public Library, 10785 NW 58th Street, Miami. To rsvp, contact Tammy Key at tkey@artcentersf.org or 305-674-8278. Check the FCLA website, www.flcenterlitarts.com  for the 2009 Story Time! schedule.
 


 In April, Prometeo Theatre, the Spanish-language theatre program at Miami Dade College, brings to life the world of the most influential master of modern theatre and the short story, the Russian playwright and author Anton Pavlovich Checkhov in Chejov vs. Chejov.  This end-of-term performance by the first-year students of Prometeo’s Professional Actor Training Program features a selection of scenes from Chekhov’s one-act plays, his memoirs and his life. Performances are at 8 p.m., April 30 and May 1 at the Prometeo Theatre, Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus, 300 N.E. 2nd Ave., Room 1101, Miami. Tickets are $15 and are available at the theatre or by calling 305-237-3262. Net proceeds go toward Prometeo’s scholarship fund.

For more information on Spanish-language theatre classes, including classes for children and teens, please visit www.prometeotheatre.com or call (305) 237-3262.

 

Planning is underway for the 2009 Miami Book Fair International, which is scheduled to take place November 8 – 15. The Book Fair is recognized as the premier literary event of its kind in the United States and one of the more important literary events in the world. Sponsorship opportunities are already available. For additional information, please contact Elaine Parker, Corporate Relations Manager at 305-237-3510 or elaine.parker@mdc.edu. Visit www.miamibookfair.com for updates on authors invited and special events in 2009.\

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The Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College promotes reading and writing throughout the year by presenting high quality literary activities open to all in South Florida. Contact: Open Page Editor Blanca Mesa, blanca.mesa@mdc.edu.