Francisco X. Alarcón

Francisco X. Alarcón and Melinda Palacio

24 JANUARY 2013 — thursday

Poetry Flash presents a reading by Francisco X. Alarcón and Melinda Palacio, wheelchair accessible, request ASL interpreters one week in advance from editor @poetryflash.org, Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, 7:30 (510/849-2087, moesbooks.com)

More about the readers
Francisco X. Alarcón's new book of poems is Ce Uno One: Poemas para el Nuevo Sol/Poems for the New Sun. His book poetically announces the New Sun—which the Mayans believe arrives in 2012—and he identifies as the era of the "Flower Sun" when the world's great concerns will be "the colors/ and the scents/ of flowers/ sprouting/ from nowhere/ everywhere…" He is the author of twelve books of poems, including Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes and De Amor Oscuro/Of Dark Love, and a number of bilingual books for children. His many honors include the 1993 American Book Award, the 1993 PEN-Oakland Josephine Miles Award, the 1984 Chicano Literary Prize, and the Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award from the Northern California Book Reviewers.
Melinda Palacio's first full-length book of poems is How Fire Is A Story, Waiting. Juan Felipe Herrera says of it, "Melinda's collection has Bop and "swagger," lingo, song, denuncia, compassion and wild, unexpected turns—all the key ingredients and hard-won practices of a poet (and shaman) in command of her powers." She has also published a first novel, Ocotillo Dreams, which won the 2012 Mariposa Award for Best First Book and the 2012 PEN-Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.