THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

The Latina Book Club welcomes Thelma T. Reyna , editor, of the newly published WHEN THE VIRUS CAME CALLING.  It's a heart-wrenching anthology that records the events Americans - and the world! - have been living and struggling with these past seven months.  Some of the stories are hard to read, but all expose the havoc this disease has wrought and, most importantly, the resilience of people who refuse to be defeated.  WHEN THE VIRUS CAME CALLING:  COVID-19 STRIKES AMERICA Thelma T. Reyna, Editor   A ground-breaking anthology of 46 distinguished American contemporary poets and prose writers, written in real time in the first half of the historic, devastating coronavirus COVID-19 invasion of America in 2020. In heart-wrenching, wide-eyed observations, firsthand events, tragedies, and reflections, these top authors document for us the horrors, grief, and heroism of friends, family, neighbors as we watched the disease unfold. Here are moments of hope and togethe...

How easy it is, how easy, for the brain to trick us into wiping pain away,  in to thinking you’re here at my door, or in the kitchen by my side, sipping at the mug, sighing at the early hour, calling my name, your mouth at my ear. How easy, how easy. --Old Habits Thelma T. Reyna Golden Foothills Press What do you do when your beloved husband of  50 years and 8 months dies undergoing a minor surgery? Poet laureate Thelma T. Reyna turned towards the written word. Thelma lost her beloved husband Victor two years ago. Her grief was unbearable and immeasurable, but life goes on and unfortunately, she had to march with it. “ I wish the wife back then knew clearly what the widow now knows…about impermanence, about ensuring that our loved ones know clearly and unfailingly how much they mean to us, how much they enrich our lives, because we’re telling them regularly, with heart and soul.” Heartfelt. Piercing. Loving. DEAREST...

The Latina Book Club doesn’t talk politics, but Trump is like the elephant in the room.  How could you not?   Our friend and Altadena, CA’s, Poet Laureate THELMA T. REYNA has just published  a poetry collection about Trump and the future of our country.   We are happy to have been granted an interview and an excerpt to share with our readers.  Happy Reading and, as always, Read Latino Lit. NOTE TO OUR CALIFORNIA READERS! Tuesday, March 13 , at VRoman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, CA, from 7-8pm, Thelma and three other local distinguished guest poets will read from her new book.  All welcome. Visit www.vromansbookstore.com to make reservations. INTERVIEW WITH THELMA T. REYNA LATINA BOOK CLUB: In this book, you give voice to people’s fears of what is happening to this country with Trump in the White House— to immigrants, to the Dreamers, to all people of color.  How hard was it to put yourself into others’ sho...

Poetry is like a song, like a psalm, like a prayer. Poetry is different things to many people, and April being Poetry Month, The   Latina Book Club   is celebrating by featuring Latino poets all week long. We welcome to our site former Poet Laureate Thelma T. Reyna ,  who has graciously shared with us an autobiographical poem, a glimpse from her childhood. GROWING UP DUSTY IN A SMALL TEXAS TOWN Our ankles were always gray, caliche dust swirling like guardian angels around twiggy brown legs leaping potholes, tripping on dirt clods. Nine children oblivious to what it meant to be growing up dusty. In winter, rivers of mud separated us from Licha, Juan, Susie. Dripping mesquite trees beckoned. Black puddles dotted our ‘hoodscape far as child eyes could see, little lakes navigated house to house as we grew up dusty. When morning light tickled our bedfaces, dervishes danced through cracks and chinks in sills and walls and f...

Poetry is like a song, like a psalm, like a prayer.  Poetry is different things to many people, and April being Poetry Month, The Latina Book Club is celebrating by featuring Latino poets all week long. There are numerous Latina female poets on which we could spend a whole month, if not more, discussing so I'll just stick with the immediate ones on my shelves  and a quick snapshot of their books.  Happy Reading! RISING, FALLING, ALL OF US by Thelma Reyna (Golden Foothills Press) From the Pope to immigrants to lovers to soldiers to celebrities to the mentally ill – all are examined and judged in Dr. Reyna’s poetry collection. The former Poet Laureate of the Altadena Library District has been published in numerous journals, and is now the proud founder and owner of the small indie press, Golden Foothills Press. Learn more about Thelma and Golden Foothills Press at www.goldenfoothillspress.com . IT CONCERNS THE MADNESS by Nancy Mercado (L...

      The month is not over yet and neither is the Celebration. The Latina Book Club is proud to welcome Poet Laureate of the Altadena Library District, Dr. Thelma T. Reyna , who urges us to celebrate Women year round not just one month a year.  As Women’s History Month comes to a close, it is easy for many of us to return to other issues that consume our attention daily. Women have been extolled throughout this special month of honoring, women’s “firsts” have been recognized and commemorated, and our collective desire to see women gain greater equity in all spheres of society has been duly expressed in various media throughout March. But our awareness of women’s status in all nations, not just in ours, for the purpose of averting discrimination and expanding egalitarianism in all facets of existence must never be delimited to a certain slice of time. We need no boundaries--of time, place, emphasis--to further any worthy cause, and th...

       A woman who writes has power. A woman who writes is feared.   In the eyes of the world this makes us dangerous beasts .—Gloria Anzaldúa from THIS BRIDGE CALLED BY BACK The Latina Book Club celebrates “dangerous beasts” –aka Latina Authors –during March, Women’s History Month! This month, we will have guest posts from authors Chiquis Barrón, Erika M. Martinez and Thelma Reyna; plus, an excerpt from Sandra Perez Gluschankoff’s new book, FRANCIZCA’S BOX. We celebrate pioneers like Isabel Allende, Julia Alvarez, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Lucha Corpi, Laura Esquivel, Reyna Grande, Meg Medina, and Pat Mora.  Yet there are many more Latina authors making their mark and flexing their power.  Below is a list of 10 Latina Authors to watch and read: Mayra Calvani -- LATINA AUTHORS & THEIR MUSES (Paladin Timeless Books), an inspirational collection of interviews about the writers's life and the passionate quest ...

   Poetry is the language of love, of revenge, of despair, of hope, of the people.   Here is a Top 14 List of Latino poets we should all be reading more of.  Among them we have the FIRST Spanish American Poet to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, an inaugural poet and two Poet Laureates.  I've tried to find websites for all the poets and, where there isn't any, I've posted a link where you could get more information on them.   Happy reading! --mcf TOP LATINO POETS Gabriela Mistral 1.     Gabriela Mistral (First Spanish American to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature) "Song of Death," http://www.poemhunter.com/gabriela-mistral 2.     Pablo Neruda, "Cantos Ceremoniales," http://www.fundacionneruda.org/en 3.     Julia de Burgos, "Rio Grande de Loiza," http://www.juliadeburgos.org 4.     Richard Blanco (Fifth Inaugural Poet of the U.S.), "For All Of Us, One Day...