Transactional Chicanx Perspectives on Ana Castillo: a Reader June 19, 2021 – Posted in: recent

The ever widening controversy and heated debates on how to label ourselves in 2021 if we are from countries south of the border or the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, or descended from there, if we have inherited genes that cause us to identify more with the legacy of colonizers or of the colonized and once enslaved, or both depending on the day and circumstance, how we look at gender and sexuality…

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I Heard the Cries of Two Hundred Children May 12, 2021 – Posted in: Blog, Books, Poetry

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/11/us-migrant-children-opaque-network-facilities

“I Heard the Cries of Two Hundred Children”

I heard the cries of two hundred children

bleating in the desert.

They were not two hundred but two thousand…

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MY BOOK OF THE DEAD Press Release May 11, 2021 – Posted in: Blog, Books, Poetry, recent

MY BOOK OF THE DEAD paints a vivid panorama, a contemporary Hieronymus Bosch triptych in breathtaking magnificence because of Castillo’s skill, her ear, her vision, and her courage. Infused with passion, lyricism, and magical realism, Castillo makes us laugh and cry and speaks truth we need to hear.

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Watercolor Women, Opaque Men May 1, 2021 – Posted in: Blog, Poetry

“…a masterpiece of Latina identity and self-empowerment.” –Carmen Tafolla, Intro., Watercolor Women, Opaque Men by Ana Castillo

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MY BOOK OF THE DEAD: Poems: Sept 1, 2021 April 17, 2021 – Posted in: Blog, Books, Poetry, recent

Drawings by Castillo are featured throughout the collection and further showcase her connection to her work as both a writer and a visual artist. MY BOOK OF THE DEAD is a remarkable collection that features a poet at the height of her craft.

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Blessed Easter, Passover & Spring April 3, 2021 – Posted in: Blog

Somehow some of us survive. I rode a killer way gripping a plank.

A new administration. Vaccines arriving to our communities, albeit slowly and for some too late.

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Women’s Review of Books: Free download March 12, 2021 – Posted in: Blog

Take it from someone who knows it’s important to never give up, someone out there needs to read your words, hear your personal wisdom, be lifted by your spirit.

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Mental Health & Writing Prompts! March 11, 2021 – Posted in: Blog, recent, workshops

Writing prompts:

Even if you respond to these questions in your head or, perhaps, go to your journal, it’s important to consciously reflect so as to move forward:

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Women’s History Month: Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller March 6, 2021 – Posted in: Blog, recent

Check out my review of DOG FLOWERS: Memoir by Danielle Geller

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Short stories to come next January 29, 2021 – Posted in: Blog

(I’m currently using the working title, FALLEN STARS.)

I’m blessed to still be safe, with a roof over my head and food to eat but as a poet and writer, communicator, speaker, political commentator and independent thinker–it was critical to find my way out of that dark place of a world pandemic and in the U.S., an aspiring dictator in office.