Eyeball deep as I dot “i’s and cross “t”s, revise, revise, make corrections and pretty much do the solitary work of the writer I set out to bea half century ago. The novel’s working title is ISABEL2121, although (hint) a different title is on the current draft. As soon as I’m ready to turn in I can post a possible pub date with HarperVia (Harper Collins) that had the faith to invest in this challenging…
Continue readingA celebration of the new anthology of Latinx/o/s poets at Chicago’s Harold Washington Library, Thurs., 9/19/24, 6 p.m.
Continue readingBelated new year to my readers: The year starts with two nice heads up: Ms. & the interview with Allium in my hometown, Chicago featuring my very early work and start as a feminist-described poet, writer, thinker & translator.
Continue readingI received an early Xmas gift this year.
It’s this song composed for a class project. I’m thankful to the professor who assigned my book. Motherhood, mothering, being a mother…what can I add that hasn’t been said?
Continue readingIn case anyone wonders
if with drawings– books are done… Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home (HarperVia) scheduled May/June 2023…it’s getting exciting.
This week en el ranchito kept busy moving forward with positivity, health, sun & amor. Plus dogs. Check out next beautiful reading for healing, meditation, prayers, progressive alliances and demonstrative of human resiliency.
Continue readingMy visual work (paintings and drawings), much like my poetry are much like a diary or journal keeping. They represent things I’ve seen, reflected upon or have concerns about. They aren’t attempts at exact representation but a peek into the artist-poet’s heart.
Continue readingThe storm comes and goes, returns. Next time, harder. We don’t even bother
with shelters. We give it new names, each time, further fire and rain.
We mourn.
We start again. It could have been you or me, we say, dying
in public beneath a baton’s blows falling amidst a spray of a sniper’s bullets,
but it wasn’t. We go on.
Disaster has happened to someone else.
–(excerpt) A STORM UPON US
To all of you, blessings to your homes in the seasons to follow, that you may all have places to rest your heads, food enough to eat and store for the winter and a storage of words to pull out in the dark long nights of winter and weave blankets of poetry to warm the world during the long nights of winter.
Continue readingCMR: How is the rhythm of the desert different than living in a big city? The quality of light? In what ways has living in different parts of the country and world influenced your writing and activism?
Ana Castillo:
Wow, best question.
