Cinco Puntos Press

Helen of Troy and the Literacy Triangle

2012-01-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

Books are windows, Books are mirrors.

Cinco Puntos is honored to have participated with El Paso's own Helen of Troy Corporation in providing books for children in El Paso's south side. We call this "The Literacy Triangle." Cinco Puntos partners with a corporation and an institution to give books to children, thereby providing relevant books to young readers.

Four school libraries--Aoy Elementary, Douglas Elementary, Guillen Middle School and La Fe Preparatory Charter School--received gifts certificates of $250 each. Librarians, and in one case the school principal and four exceptional reading students--came down to our offices and selected from our array of bilingual and multicultural titles.

Many thanks to Helen of Troy and, in particular, to President and CEO Jerry Rubin who grew up not far from where these kids go to school.

Librarian Carol Gonzalez, Aoy Elementary

Librarian Sandra Byer, Douglas Elementary

Librarian Brenda Marin, Guillen Middle School

School Principal Karina Silva along with exceptional readers Bruno Sotelo (5th Grade), Leila De Pasavale (3rd Grade), Gabriel Scott (4th Grade) and Liliana Dominguez (2nd Grade).

Lone Star Ramble: James Carlos Blake Book Tour

2012-01-20T07:32:00.012-07:00

Cinco Puntos is all over the Texas map this weekend! While John Byrd mans the store back in El Paso, Lee and Bobby Byrd are hitting up ALA Midwinter Meetup in Dallas and James Carlos Blake kicks off his three-day Country of the Bad Wolfes book tour across the Lone Star State. Catch the acclaimed author tonight in Houston at Murder by the Book. The great reviews for this book just keep rolling in!

Country of the Bad Wolfes Texas Book Tour:

Friday, Jan. 20 | Murder by the Book | 6:30 p.m.
2342 Bissonnet Street | Houston, TX 77098
713.524.8597

Saturday, Jan. 21 | Gemini Ink | Class from 1-3 p.m., reading at 3:30 p.m.
513 S. Presa | San Antonio, TX 78205
210.734.9673

Sunday, Jan. 22 | Bookpeople | 3 p.m.
603 North Lamar Boulevard | Austin, TX 78703
800.853.9757

Planning on going? We'd love to see your photos and video from the event! Send 'em this-a way and we'll share 'em here on the blog!

Goin' Down to Dallas

2012-01-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the American Library Association's Midwinter Meetup and we're gearing up for a dusty road trip east, through the sprawling heart of Texas, to Dallas. We'll be in booth #1645, and we're giving away free copies of Joe Hayes' classic tall tall, The Lovesick Skunk to anyone who makes a purchase! Authors at our booth this year include Choctaw storyteller Tim Tingle and the lucha libre lovin' author/illustrator Xavier Garza. Plus, we're spotlighting James Carlos Blake's newest novel, Country of the Bad Wolfes—a new historical novel about Mexico and Texas during the Díaz Regime. It’s already been well received by the Texas Observer and will be the lead review in the January Texas Monthly.

Here are all the details:

Friday, January 20 | 5:30p-7:30p: Choctaw author Tim Tingle, author of Crossing Bok Chitto and Saltypie, will be in our booth.

Saturday, January 21: Meet Xavier Garza, author of Lucha Libre - The Man in the Silver Mask. He'll be signing copies of his latest book, a bilingual lucha libre thriller, Maximilian & the Mystery of the Guardian Angel, a book sure to please the young adult patrons at your libraries—especially the boys.

Sunday, January 22: Tim Tingle returns to hang out in our booth!

Remember to stop by booth #1645 and say "hi." We're looking forward to seeing you!

Which Side Are You On? Christopher Cardinale in Santa Fe Tomorrow

2011-12-28T11:39:00.001-07:00

CHRISTOPHER CARDINALE, the illustrator of the newly release

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?: THE STORY OF A SONG
written by George Ella Lyon, will be presenting his new title and signing copies on

Thursday, December 29

GARCIA STREET BOOKS

376 Garcia St # B Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 986-0151

4:30 pm to 6 pm.

Please join us!

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?: THE STORY OF A SONG
Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? tells the story of the classic union song that was written in 1931 by Florence Reece in a rain of bullets. It has been sung by people fighting for their rights all over the world. Florence's husband Sam was a coal miner in Kentucky. Many of the coal mines were owned by big companies, who kept wages low and spent as little money on safety as possible. Miners lived in company houses on company land and were paid in scrip, good only at the company store. The company owned the miners sure as sunrise. That's why they had to have a union. Miners went on strike until they could get better pay, safer working conditions, and health care. The company hired thugs to attack union organizers like Sam Reece.

George Ella Lyon tells this hair-raising story through the eyes of one of Florence's daughters, a dry-witted, pig-tailed gal whose vantage point is from under the bed with her six brothers and sisters. The thugs' bullets hit the thin doors and windows of the company house and the kids lying low wonder whether they're going to make it out of this alive; wonder exactly if this strike will make their lives better or end them, but their mother keeps scribbling and singing. "We need a song," she tells her kids. That's not at all what they think they need. Graphic novelist Christopher Cardinale brings Florence's triumphant story to life in true rip-roaring union style.

" A good and important story, well-told for an elementary-school audience. Cardinale’s folksy, woodcut-style paintings include several memorable images. The family’s home – “a coal company house” – is cradled in the hand of a gold-buttoned executive. A lineup of coal miners emphasizes, appropriately, the miners’ muscular arms, work boots and dirt-encrusted pants. An aerial view of the parents’ bedroom, the children crouched under the bed, the mother standing defiant by the bullet-ridden wall, is especially effective. "

—The New York Times

"What a perfect time for this picture book’s arrival...“Which Side Are You On?" is an old song with new relevance for a generation facing a dubious future."
—NY Journal of Books

"It’s a high-stakes account of grace under pressure."
—Publisher's Weekly
"Cardinale's digitally colored scratchboard art is dynamic...Given that many of the same [labor] conditions exist today, only changed by mechanization, the music and lyrics included may well find use in the current generation. Lyon has given today's readers a stirring story."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Lyon and Cardinale make a perfect match for this picture-book homage to a 1931 rallying cry born under duress in Harlan County, Ky... Although this book describes a historical event, it can open a gateway to understanding terms such as "collective bargaining," what that right has meant, and to consider what it means today."
—Shelf Awareness

Joe Hayes tells La Llorona, the Weeping in Spanish and English

2011-10-31T15:34:00.000-06:00

La Llorona contado por Joe Hayes!

La Llorona, the Weeping Woman told by Joe Hayes

Yes, Johnny Byrd did get married!

2011-10-09T15:44:00.001-06:00

Cinco Puntos Puntos is delighted to announce that, Yes, the rumor is true. Johnny Byrd married the truly wonderful Ailbhe Cormack. It was a truly marvelous three-day event, and it's taken Lee and me this whole last week to begin to recuperate. Meanwhile, Ailbhe and Johnny are honeymooning in Spain. Last word from them is that they walk around Barcelona holding hands and drinking cafe con leche. Many thanks to all well-wishers. Meanwhile, the business runs along without him, although we miss him greatly. He'll be back in the office and jet-legged the end of October. --Bobby

[Note: the photos below are by our close friend, the artist Jill Somoza.]

Ailbhe and Johnny: The first dance as husband and wife

Lee, the very happy mother of the groom, immediately after the ceremony

And Bobby, the equally happy father of the groom

The Blood Lie Book Trailer

2011-09-27T12:17:00.004-06:00

It's 1928.

It's Jack's 16th birthday.

And he's about to be accused of murder.

Want to learn more about the real-life Massena, NY blood libel? Click here to buy the book, read reiews and discover resources on the little-known event.

From Laos, With Love

2011-08-29T11:19:00.009-06:00

We just received a wonderful and touching note from a CP devotee about Youme Landowne's book Mali Under the Night Sky — A Lao Story of Home!

I have a four-year-old son who’s bi-racial (Lao-Ethiopian). I read him this book about Mali’s journey; and in a surprising & sweet, innocent way, my son started asking me about war, about why Mali had to leave her country. It was a special bonding moment for my son & me, for me to have the opportunity to educate/teach him about his daddy’s own journey to America. I was born in Vientiane, and spent 14 months in Nong Khai Refugee camp before coming to America.

Mali Under the Night Sky is the true story of Laotian-American artist Malichansouk Kouanchao, whose family was forced by civil war to flee Laos when she was five. Before the war began, Mali lived in a beautiful community where she felt safe and was much loved. But the coming war caused her family to flee to another country and a life that was less than ideal. What did she carry with her? She carried her memories. And they in turn carried her across the world, sharing where she is from and all that she loves with the people she meets.

Rick Riordan, James Patterson & Pamela Paul vs Reluctant Readers

2011-08-26T16:02:00.000-06:00

Rick Riordan is granddaughter Emma Birdie Byrd's favorite, so we were delighted to see him talking with James Patterson and Pamela Paul about reluctant readers, especially boys. Good stuff.

Crowdsourcing the Kentucky Club

2011-08-26T11:12:00.001-06:00

Have you ever been to the Kentucky Club on Avenida Juarez?

We are looking for images of the world famous bar to use as the cover for Benjamin Alire Saenz' latest collection of short stories about what else... The Kentucky Club.

Photo contest ends Friday, September 16! Send photos to leebyrd@cincopuntos.com

[Image via Daniel Huggard]

Publishing Workshops for Kids

2011-08-08T10:00:00.004-06:00

HOW DOES A BOOK BECOME A BOOK?
A Workshop and Field Trip for Students of All Ages

Teachers, Librarians, Parents--school is about to start again. If you're in El Paso or the surrounding area, remember that Lee Byrd, the co-publisher of Cinco Puntos, gives a wonderful workshop for kids of all ages during the school year and the summer too. It's a great field trip for kids. Below is our description of the workshop.

A group of kids from El Paso Northeast

Hello New Orleans

2011-07-15T13:05:00.005-06:00

Bobby and Lee

It was hot and muggy in the Big Easy for the ALA Annual— weather for morning mimosas, Po' Boys for lunch, and the hotel swimming pool in the afternoon. (We had to skip the mimosas but it *sounded* like a good idea). Cinco Puntos shared a booth with Fulcrum Publishing out of Colorado, publishers of Trickster, a graphic collection of Native American tales, including one by CPP's own Tim Tingle. J.L. Powers signed copies of This Thing Called the Future in the booth and Cinco Puntos hosted its first ALA Giveaway. Five librarians received a collection of three books (Colores de la Vida, This Thing Called the Future, and Walking Home to Rosie Lee).

Author Alan Cumyn with Groundwoods's Patsy Aldana and librarian Martha Walke

On Saturday morning, Cinco Puntos and Groundwood Books hosted a breakfast at The Columns Hotel, an historic hotel built in 1883 and located in New Orleans' upper Garden District. We invited eighteen librarians to meet Groundwood's Alan Cumyn and Cinco Puntos' J.L. Powers.

A Tim Tingle fan, Lee Byrd and Tim Tingle at the Cinco Puntos table

J.L. Powers with Groundwood's Fred Horler

Jessica (J.L.) talked about how she fell in love with Africa— there's a romantic version and a "real" version of how that happened— and why she wrote This Thing Called the Future, while Alan talked about his latest young adult novel, TILT, a wry coming-of-age story where the main character obsesses about basketball and, well, sex, even as his home life deteriorates around him. (It's a great read, by the way. Think wet dreams; dads who disappear and then reappear with half-brothers they've apparently kidnapped; and the shifting, awkward, sexy relationship between two teenagers trying to figure life out.)

Food was great, company was even better, and we hope to do it all again at a future ALA!

Click here and here to see more ALA photos on Facebook.

Get 'Em While They're Hot!

2011-07-12T09:23:00.003-06:00

Our good friend Dennis Maloney of the inimitable White Pine Press is selling his massive forty year collection full of autographed and first edition books from the likes of Robert Bly, Pablo Neruda and Michael McClure. Poetry, prose—even some magazines!— Maloney's personal bookshelves include collections from Gary Snyder, various Native American poets, Robert Creeley and so many others.

Dennis Maloney, like me, came to poetry and publishing through following those rabbit trails of poetics laid out for us by the New American Poets (and others) canonized by Donald Allen. Dennis also wandered off on his own into the Japanese and Chinese poets as a translator and a scholar. His library will be full of beautiful and important and collectable books. Besides, White Pine Press deserves our support. It's done the work, it's walked the walk, and our home libraries are peppered with that good work.
—Bobby Byrd

Click here to browse through the list of titles. Proceeds go to support White Pine Press.

Joe Hayes tells the Very Tall Tale of THE LOVESICK SKUNK

2011-04-25T09:00:00.000-06:00

Oh, the Zoological Garden of Tall Tales became a lonely place for Joe Hayes' The Gum Chewing Rattler, so he decided to tell the tale of the Lovesick Skunk to keep that rattlesnake happy!

Joe sure must have had a singular growing up in the Arizona desert because he sure loves to write stories about it. And he tells those stories of his so much to audiences all over the United States that it seems like the stories just get more and more fantastic. I bet you've already heard the first tall tale he wrote—The Gum-Chewing Rattler—about a rattlesnake who chewed bubblegum. Yes, it's true. That scary snake even blew huuuuuge bubbles.

Now Joe has written a new story about his early years in Arizona. Joe, the kid, was a creature of habit. If he decided he liked to do something, he would do it over and over again. Like wear the same T-shirt until it nearly fell apart or use the same pencil until he'd sharpened it down to a nub. He also had a pair of black-and-white high-top sneakers that he loved to wear. He wore them every day. "Get rid of those shoes," his mother told him one morning. "They smell terrible!"

Did Joe listen? Not until he met the back end of a skunk.

And this wasn't just an ordinary skunk, but one who was lovesick.

But I'm not going to tell you who she was in love with. You'll have to find that out for yourself.

WASHINGTON, DC ALERT: ¡MR. MENDOZA MEETS THE TRICKSTER!

2011-03-28T10:04:00.001-06:00

GRAPHIC NOVEL AND COMICS ILLUSTRATORS AND FANS

Come meet Christopher Cardinale, Matt Dembicki, Michael Auger and members of the DC Conspiracy
Tuesday evening, 6:30pm @ Busboys and Poets, 14th & V (2021 14th St).

Teaching for Change is hosting Christopher Cardinale (graphic artist: Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush and the forthcoming Which Side are You On?) and Matt Dembicki, editor of, and Michael Auger, contributor to, Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection. Auger is also a member of DC Conspiracy, an artist activist collective. Meet the artists, talk comic and graphic novels, eat some food, have a beer.

The cherry blossoms must be blooming.

Besides, Teaching for Change (“Teaching for Change provides teachers and parents with the tools to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write and change the world”) and Busboys and Poets (“a restaurant, bookstore, fair trade market and gathering place where people can discuss issues of social justice and peace) are both great organizations, a true collaboration between a very hip and fun for-profit restaurant and a non-profit bookstore.

Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush graphically depicts the small town of Rosario, where dead corpses rise up out of the cathedral when it floods; where vast silver mines beneath the town occasionally collapse, causing a whole section of the village to drop out of sight; and where the town’s walls are decorated with cryptic messages painted by Mr. Mendoza, self-proclaimed graffiti king of all Mexico. He paints the town's ugly truths…and there's nothing his paintbrush hasn't touched, from a dead monk to a peeping Tom! According to Publisher’s Weekly, Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush, written by acclaimed Latino writer Luis Alberto Urrea and illustrated by Christopher Cardinale, is “the ideal way to present magical realism graphically,” while The Bloomsbury Review says “Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush is a rich gift…Urrea and Cardinale are a match made in heaven.”

Trickster: Native American Tales, A Graphic Collection is the first graphic anthology of Native American trickster tales. Over twenty Native storytellers and carefully selected illustrators cleverly tell the tales of the trickster—a crafty creature who uses cunning to get food, steals precious possessions, or simply causes mischief—in the hijinks of “How Wildcat Caught a Turkey,” an ego-driven social misstep in “Coyote and the Pebbles,” the hilarity of “Rabbit’s Choctaw Tail Tale,” and many more. Each tale has a unique and powerful voice and look, from serious and dramatic to funny and sometimes downright fiendish and is wonderfully entertaining for readers of all ages and backgrounds. Library Journal said, “[Trickster is] done in such a way that kids will find themselves enthralled. When was the last time a book of folktales enthralled one of your kids anyway? It’s remarkable.” Editor Matt Dembicki is the founder of DC Conspiracy, a comic creators’ collaborative in DC, and Mr. Big fame, his nature graphic novel. Visit his author blog at http://matt-dembicki.blogspot.com.

Cinco Puntos: East Coast, West Coast, Babies Everywhere

2011-03-24T11:59:00.001-06:00

Please welcome to the world Esme Kingston Frame, baby daughter of Elena Marinaccio and Andy Frame. Elena worked for Cinco Puntos for several months, end of 2010, but alas, husband Andy left the army and the family moved back to New York so Elena could have this marvelous baby. Not to worry, Elena did so well, we opened up our East Coast office where Elena works for us in her home, Baby Esme at her side. Elena is our IT Administrator and Assistant Editor. Baby Esme is simply happy.

Which reminded us: Cinco Puntos never announced our West Coast office, likewise staffed by an in-house CPP alum with baby, Jessica Powers (aka J.L. Powers, her nom de plume, a phrase I’ve never used). Jessica worked for us several years in the early 2000s, helping us wander into the strange territory of Young Adult literature. She went off to Stanford to study for her PhD in African studies, went to Africa pursuing her studies living with a family there and getting a foothold in the Zulu language, decided what she really wanted to do was to be a writer for young adults. She wrote The Confessional (Knoph, 2007). Her next novel came to us. We loved it. This Thing Called the Future--a coming of age story of a young woman growing up in South Africa is being shipped to book stores right now. In the process, Jessica fell in love with publishing again, and she’s working as Senior Editor for Cinco Puntos in the Bay Area. Thus, our West Coast Office! Technology is so cool. Jessica and her husband Chris Gibson are the proud parents of Nesta, a baby boy, now six months old. They named him Nesta to honor Bob Marley, a hero of husband Chris and to many others the world round. Nesta was Marley’s first original name. Don’t worry about a thing cause every little thing is going to be alright. That's what Nesta says. He's got those big brown eyes.

Tucson Book Festival This Weekend!

2011-03-07T14:52:00.004-07:00

CINCO PUNTOS PRESS

AT THE TUCSON FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Saturday and Sunday, March 12th & 13th, 2011

BOOTH 446

Joe Hayes, Ben Saenz, JL Powers,

Luis Alberto Urrea, Tom Miller and Others

Including Johnny Byrd and Bobby Byrd!!

COME HANG WITH US!

JOE HAYES

Saturday

Signing @ Booth 446 @ 10:00 am - Noon, 1:30 - 1:45 & 3:15 - 5 pm

Southwest Story Fiesta
Entertainment / Sat 12:30 PM - 01:00 PM
Story Telling Stage
La Llorona, El Cucuy, Y Mas! Mexican-American Ghost Stories and Folklore

Panel / Sat 2:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Student Union - Tucson Room
Joe Hayes
Solo Presentation / Sun 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Story Blanket

Sunday

Signing @ Booth 446 @ 10:30 to 11 am & 11:30 to 2 pm

Joe Hayes
Solo Presentation / Sun 2:30 PM - 03:00 PM
Story Blanket

Pass It On: Creating Community Through Storytelling
Two Joes: Joe Hayes and Joe Bruchac. Three things are needed to build a community: a teller, a listener and a story. Children are hungry for a sense of belonging, and they feel held and comforted by the flow of a well-told tale. Participants in this session will explore the power of storytelling and build greater confidence in their own skill as tellers.
Panel / Sun 4:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Education Building - Room 353

BENJAMIN ALIRE SAENZ

Saturday

Signing @ booth 446 @ 12:45 - 2 pm

Benjamin Aire Sáenz
Solo Presentation / Sat 4:00 PM - 04:30 PM
Teen Authors Lounge

Kids in the Crossfire: Border Politics in Literature
Two authors discuss the cultural traditions and languages of our “border” relationships with Mexico, Latin America, and Native American tribes as reflected in the stories, poems, songs and plays that communicate historical and present-day knowledge that helps us appreciate each others' communities.
Panel / Sat 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Education Building - Room 349

Sunday
Signing @ Booth 446 @ 10am to 11am

Becoming Unstuck: Young Latinos Moving Forward

Poets Benjamin Aire Saenz, Sandra Lopez, Malin Alegria
Panel / Sun 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Student Union - Tucson Room

Poesía and Prose: The Spoken Palabras from Two Very Diverse Poets
Ben Saezn with Acoma Poet Simon Ortiz
Nuestras Raices
Workshop / Sun 1:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Integrated Learning Center - Room 119

J.L. POWERS

Sunday Only

Signing @ Booth 446 @ 1pm to 2 and 4 to 5pm

Knowing the Ropes: Getting Your Young Adult Novels Published
Whether you are an experienced writer of young adult fiction or just getting started, this panel of successful YA authors will answer your questions about getting published. They will discuss current YA writing trends, how to attract the attention of agents and editors, and resources for younger writers.
Workshop / Sun 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Education Building - Room 333

Taking a Stance: Social Justice and Literature for Children and Teens
Two authors share how they explore social issues through their books for children and young adults. Whether you are a young adult who likes to read and has a passion for social justice, a parent or teacher concerned about introducing social issues, or a writer wondering how to be both substantive and entertaining, come participate in this interactive panel.
Panel / Sun 2:30 PM - 03:30 PM
Education Building - Room 349

LUIS ALBERTO URREA

Saturday

A Conversation with Luis Alberto Urrea
Nuestras Raíces
Solo Presentation / Sat 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Nuestras Raíces Performance Stage

"Border Crossings": Luis Urrea and T. Jefferson Parker in Conversation with Scott Simon
Panel / Sat 4:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Student Union - South Ballroom

Sunday

The Graphic Novel: Is a Picture Really Worth 1,000 Words?
Panel / Sun 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
UA Mall Tent

TOM MILLER

Signing and Event times to be announced.

VIDEO: J.L. POWERS talks about THIS THING CALLED THE FUTURE

2011-01-24T14:36:00.001-07:00

J.L. Powers visited our booth at the Mid-Winter American Library Association Conference in San Diego earlier in January. It was a busy time, but we were able to talk about her new coming-of-age novel This Thing Called the Future about 14-year-old Khosi growing up in post-apartheid South Africa during the time of HIV. Good book, good interview, good person. You'll enjoy this little video.

MidWinter ALA San Diego Roundup

2011-01-20T14:37:00.002-07:00

CPP was proud to share a booth with Theatre Communications Group

Here we are with good friend Terry Nemuth, Publisher

Forgive how we look. We'd been on the concrete for three days.

Oh, wow, we came back from the Mid-Winter ALA in San Diego with good news, good memories and good feelings for the year in front of us. We hosted J.L. (aka Jessica) Powers whose new YA novel This Thing Called the Future we will be publishing in April; and the Mexican (Tijuana) artist Esau Andrade, the illustrator for Ben Saenz' Perfect Season for Dreaming. All of us had great talks with wonderful librarians. We also talked to distributors and other publishers, we ate good food and marveled at the San Diego Bay and we took copious notes of things to do in the year ahead. And we came home with some very good news, which may be old news to many of our fans, especially to those who get our emails--Cinco Puntos Press books received two prestigious awards:

Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Saenz was honored by being named one of the Top Ten Books for Young Adults by the YALSA Committee; and Tim Tingle's Saltypie, A Choctaw Journey from Darkness into Light was honored as a ALSC Notable Book for Non-Fiction. Congratulations to both Ben and Tim and to Karen Clarkson, the wonderful illustrator of Saltypie.

Of course, we're never 100% happy. We expected the graphic novel collaboration Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush (Luis Alberto Urrea and Christopher Cardinale) to receive equivalent recognition from the Graphic Novel committee. Already Kirkus Reviews had listed it in its 2010 Top Ten List of Graphic Novels, and it had been glowingly reviewed from Kirkus, PW, Library Journal and others, but, alas, the committee went in other directions. They had their own druthers. Oh well. The publishing animal, although luminous, is a peculiar and diverse beast. But we wouldn't trade Mr. Mendoza for the others. It's a remarkable and important graphic novel, the product of two wonderful artists.

Here are some more photographs.

JL Powers with Lee showing off the sampler

for Jessica's new young adult novel

This Thing Called the Future,

a coming of age story of Khosi,

a 14-year old girl in South Africa.

Esau Andrade and Bobby in Little Italy, San Diego.

We'd just eaten too much Italian food and Byrd had two beers. Egad.

With our good friend Fred Horler of Groundwood Books.

Great people, great books make for great friends!

Artemisa (Arte) Salinas, 1932-2011

2011-01-19T09:41:00.002-07:00

Artemisa (Arte) Salinas
September 25, 1932 – January 17, 2011

Arte, the beloved waitress at the legendary H&H Carwash on Yandell Street in El Paso, died in her sleep Monday morning. She was 79. She left behind three children, six grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren. She bequeathed us the memory of her remarkable smile, a tough & wicked sense of humor, a pride in her work and a passion and joy in serving others. She had friends and admirers all across the city and the country who knew her as one of the brightest and most beautiful faces in that luminescent and beloved diner on Yandell that we all want to claim as if we’d discovered it ourselves. Before we opened our mouths, she knew what we were going to order. / Lee

Cinco Puntos Holiday Gift Guide

2010-12-14T10:11:00.003-07:00

Perplexed over what to buy your persnickety loved ones? Look no further! The Cinco Puntos Holiday Gift Guide has you covered with presents for family, friends and Secret Santas alike. And there's a lot more where these came from! If you still can't make a decision, visit our website or stop by our store at 701 Texas Avenue in downtown El Paso for our complete collection of stories for children, bilingual classics, YA fiction and books for all of us who are old enough to walk up to the bar and order a hot toddy or Irish coffee to warm ourselves for the Holidays! Remember, Cinco Puntos is celebrating our 25th Anniversary, so folks at the store get a 25% discount. Or make life easy by getting 15% off at the website. Happy Holidays, everybody! Thanks for keeping us alive and well for all these many years.

•BOOKS FOR KIDS•

Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid

The hilarious retelling of a Christmas Classic. Meet Santa’s newest helper: his cousin Pancho, a farmer and former mariachi singer living in South Texas. When Pancho volunteers to help Santa deliver presents to all the children on the Texas/Mexico border, things take a turn for the fantastic, complete with a magical wagon, an adorable helper elf, and yes, even Flying Burritos.

Winner of the Tejas Star Book Award

Written and Illustrated by Xavier Garza

$17.95 Hardback | $8.95 Paperback | Bilingual | Ages 5+

Juan Verdades: The Man Who Couldn’t Tell a Lie / El hombre que no sabía mentir

Joe Hayes' newest bilingual book. A wealthy landowner bets the farm that trusted employee Juan Verdades cannot tell a lie. When the daughter of the man who stands to win the bet tricks Juan into making a foolish mistake, Juan wonders if he can admit it. This clever and heart-felt retelling is beautifully illustrated in dreamy earth tones.

By Joe Hayes • Illustrated by Joseph Daniel Fielder

$8.95 Paperback | Bilingual | Ages 8+

A Perfect Season for Dreaming / Una tiempo perfecto para soñar

Ben Saenz at his best! In this endearing, richly told story, an old man tells his granddaughter about the nine most beautiful dreams of his lifetime. Younger children will enjoy the bright colors and counting aspects while older readers and adults alike appreciate the textured meanings of Octavio Rivera’s wondrous dreamscapes.

Best Book for Children, Texas Institute of Letters

By Benjamin Alire Sáenz • Illustrated by Esau Andrade Valencia

$17.95 Hardback | $8.95 Paperback | Bilingual | Ages 5+

The Lovesick Skunk

Another brand new story from Joe Hayes! This time ‘round the teller of tall tales explains exactly what happens when a skunk falls in love… with a particularly stinky pair of sneakers. Start a collection of Joe Hayes' tall tales and get The Gum-Chewing Rattler too.

L.A. Times Holiday Book Gift Guide selection

By Joe Hayes • Illustrated by Antonio Castro L.

$16.95 Hardback | English | Ages 7+

The King of Things

A wonderful introduction to Mexican culture, 3 year-old Little Lalo plays the lotería cards and counts as his possessions the sun, the moon, a lion, a fish, a clown, a train, and the crown on his head. Each card in Lalo’s kingdom has its own page, illustrated with a playful, brightly colored woodcut.

Written and illustrated by Artemio Rodríguez

Best Design of a Trade Book Award Finalist, TIL

$12.95 Hardback | Bilingual | Ages 2+

The King of Things - Lotería Game

Based on the book, snag this beautifully-designed game of luck and you can have as much fun as Lalo every time you play lotería with friends and family! But the set and save! Purchase The King of Things and Loteria Game for only $20— a $7.95 savings!

Designed and illustrated by Artemio Rodríguez

$15.00 Card Game | 2-8 Players

•GRAPHIC NOVELS FOR YOUNG ADULTS•

Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush

Be careful growing up in the green, wet, mango-sweet Mexican village of Rosario, where dead corpses rise up out of the cathedral walls during July when it always floods; where vast silver mines beneath the town occasionally collapse causing a whole section of the village to drop out of sight; where a man with a paintbrush, to wit Mr. Mendoza, is the town’s self-appointed conscience.

2010 Kirkus Best Books for Teens

By Luis Alberto Urrea • Illust. by Christopher Cardinale

$17.95 Hardback | English | Ages 12+

Pitch Black: Don’t Be Skerd

Go underground in this dark yet hopeful story of survival deep in the forgotten tunnels of the New York City subway system. Anthony Horton— abandoned youth, wandering soul, art lover— is your tour guide. You won’t regret the ride.

By Youme Landowne & Anthony Horton

Illustrated by Youme Landowne

$17.95 Hardback | English | Ages 14+

•FICTION FOR YOUNG ADULTS•

Last Night I Sang to the Monster

18 year-old Zach ponders life, God and other obstacles as a patient at a therapeutic residential program for alcoholism and post-traumatic stress in this evocative and graceful story of redemption and recovery.

Editor's Choice Award, Library Media Connection

By Benjamin Alire Sáenz

$16.95 Paperback | English | Ages 15+

Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood

Now available in paperback only from Cinco Puntos Press! Set in a 1960s Las Cruces barrio, Sammy navigates love and loss in this classic Latino YA novel.

By Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Winner of the Americás Award

Outstanding Books for the College Bound, ALA

$19.95 Hardback | $11.95 Paperback | English | Ages 14+

•NON-FICTION FOR THE HISTORY BUFF•

Drug Lord: The Life and Death of a Mexican Kingpin— a True Story

The True Crime Classic people can’t stop talking about— now in a brand new edition! Featuring a preface from writer Charles Bowden, and updated introduction and epilogue. Uncover the hidden history of Mexico’s drug trade from the beginning with unheard-of access to the original cartel kingpin, Pablo Acosta.

By Terrence Poppa

$16.95 Paperback | English

Ringside Seat to a Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso & Juárez:1893-1923

The best seat in the house! Like Boston for the American Revolution, El Paso, Texas and sister city Juárez, Chihuahua served as the intellectual crucible for the Mexican Revolution. A can’t-put-down read with dazzling images and unforgettable storytelling.

Southwest Book Award Winner

By David Dorado Romo

$26.95 Paperback | English

Las Soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution

The photographs in Las Soldaderas and Elena Poniatowska’s commentary rescue the women of the Mexican Revolution from the dust and oblivion of history. Without the soldaderas there is no Mexican Revolution—they kept it alive and fertile, like the earth.

By Elena Poniatowska
Photos courtesy of The Casasola Collection

$12.95 Paperback | English

What Men Call Treasure: The Search for Gold at Victorio Peak

The Southwest in full of mystery and lost treasure. But this treasure hunt ends up in the strange corridors of the human heart. In 1937, a con man and an unlicensed chiropodist known as Doc Noss discovered fabulous treasure inside a New Mexico mountain named after the Apache chief Victorio.

By Robert Boswell and David Schweidel
$15.00 Hardback | English

•WHODUNITS FOR THE MYSTERY LOVER•

Lone Star Noir

This unsettling anthology features over a dozen hard-boiled noir tales (quite a few penned by Cinco Puntos alums) with Texas’ lonely, dusty landscape as the backdrop. Put out by our publishing pals at Akashic as part of their acclaimed Noir Series.

Edited by Bobby Byrd and John William Byrd

$15.95 Paperback | English

Shadow of the Shadow

Sex, murder and gun-toting poets in post-Revolutionary Mexico City. Dominoes are played by all. This unforgettable tale from Mexico’s primo crime writer follows four quirky, tormented men on a secret mission to snuff out conspiring government officials, corrupt army officers and American industrialists.

By Paco Ignacio Taibo II • Translation by William I. Neuman

$13.95 Paperback | English

•TUNES & POEMS FOR THE MUSIC FAN•

How Will We Know When We’re Dead?

Created in the spirit of the Beat Generation’s music-and-verse marriage, a retrospective album of Bobby Byrd’s poetry set against the pensive soundscapes and guitar noodlings of El Paso’s own resident rock star Jim Ward (At the Drive-In, Sleepercar). A dreamy listen for a chilly winter’s night, and a must-have for any music collector.

By Bobby Byrd and Jim Ward

$15.95 CD

All of these items— and lots more— are available on our website, www.cincopuntos.com for a 15% discount and at our storefront at 701 Texas Ave. in downtown El Paso for the 25% discount.

Have a great holiday season from all of us at Cinco Puntos Press!

Johnny Byrd: Our Man in Guadalajara

2010-12-02T09:12:00.001-07:00

Johnny Byrd with Domi (Domitila Dominguez), Antonio Ramirez

at their house in Tlaquepaque outside Guadalajara.

Every year Johnny Byrd travels down to Guadalajara to attend the Feria Internacional del Libro, aka la FIL. His job is to sell rights of our books to publishers from other countries, or buy rights for books we think may do well here. It was at the FIL that we discovered, through the help of good friends, La Historia de los colores / The Story of Colors written by Subcomandante Marcos and illustrated by the incomparable Domi (aka Domitila Dominguez). The Story of Colors is the book that got written up on the front page of the New York Times and made us famous for a few days in 1996. That in turn helped us sell over 100,000 copies of the book. Domi, her husband Antonio Ramirez and their family (together they form el Colectivo Callejero) have been close friends of ours ever since (see below) our first meeting them. Domi and Antonio collaborated to illustrate our other book by El Sup, The Question of Swords / Folktales of the Zapatista Revolution, one of my all-time favorite CPP books although it didn't come close to the kind of publicity or sales of The Story of Colors. And it is through The Story of Colors in a roundabout way we met our very good friend and colleague Patsy Aldana of Groundwood Books (Toronto). Patsy is one of the great ladies of independent children's book publishing. A wise and generous woman. [Note: I wish there was a good profile of Patsy online but there's not.] So the FIL has been an important part of what Cinco Puntos Press is and, we hope, will be.

Anyway, Johnny has been in Guadalajara since Sunday--eating the delicious food, drinking the delicious beer, enjoying the weather, and talking the book talk. Since Johnny doesn't carry a camera, I'm putting up some photos from last year when I accompanied him. It's hard work, exhausting work, but it's a good time too.

Patsy Aldana (4th from right) of Groundwood Books asked us to co-host

an open house at the home of Domi and Antonio. We were

delighted to do so. Our guests were librarians from all over

the United States and a few distributors to libraries.

It was a great day, and Domi and Antonio sold some work!

Los Angeles was the FIL's "featured country" in 2009.

One day, walking around, we ran into our friend Luis Rodriguez.

How cool can that be!

Children's Book Press was also at the 2009 FIL.

Here we are with our friend Janet (Sales and Marketing)

and Dana Goldberg (Executive Director)

We had just enjoyed a wonderful lonche de mariscos!

But it's time for Johnny Byrd to come on home.

We hope he brings good news.

Webinar on Graphic Novels hosted by Baker & Taylor

2010-11-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

Book wholesaler Baker & Taylor is hosting a Webinar next week for Librarians and book retailers (their target clients). It's Wednesday, 2pm EST, and to attend you need to sign up at their website. We're curious what they can say in 25 minutes, but I think it may be interesting. John Shebleski is on the panel. He's Sales Manager for Diamond Books, a good friend, is very knowledgeable about graphic novels. B&T is one of our biggest clients through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, and they've sold lots of our first two graphic novels: Pitch Black: Don't Be Skerd by Youme Landowne and Anthony Horton, and Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush with Christopher Cardinale illustrating the Luis Alberto Urrea story. Pitch Black was chosen for a Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens by the American Library Association in 2009 and Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush has already been chosen as one of the year's Top 10 Graphic Novels for 2010 by Kirkus Reviews and we hope it joins Pitch Black on the ALA list. We're crossing our fingers.

Highway 35 Lone Star Noir Boogie

2010-11-02T16:45:00.000-06:00

Editors Johnny Byrd and Bobby Byrd are on the road again, celebrating the publication of Lone Star Noir (Akashic Books). This time they'll be visiting the three cities along the I-35 Corridor--Friday is San Antonio at the Twig, Saturday is the SMU B&N and Sunday it's back down the road to Austin at BookPeople. Please come by and say hello. It's good to see old friends, great to meet new folks. Also, for those who can't make to any of the events, signed copies are available now at the Cinco Puntos website or at the Cinco Puntos storefront at 701 Texas Avenue, El Paso.

--Fri., Nov. 5, 5:00pm Happy Hour
SAN ANTONIO
The Twig Bookshop in their new digs at the Pearl Brewery.
200 E Grayson, Suite 124
*Featuring editors Bobby Byrd, Johnny Byrd, with contributors Ito Romo, Lisa Sandlin, Jesse Sublett, and George Wier.

--Sat., Nov. 6, 3:00pm
DALLAS
SMU Bookstore
3060 Mockingbird Lane
DALLAS, TX
* featuring editors Bobby Byrd and Johnny Byrd, with contributor George Wier.

--Sun., Nov. 7, 5:00pm
AUSTIN
BookPeople Bookstore
603 N. Lamar Blvd.
This reading and booksigning inaugurates BookPeople's new MYSTERY PEOPLE book section.
*Featuring editors Bobby Byrd, Johnny Byrd, with contributors Ito Romo, Jesse Sublett, and George Wier.

The Short-Handed Halloween Stomp

2010-10-27T16:30:00.000-06:00

Oh, my God. El Día de los Muertos and Halloween are just a few days away and we’ve not published our annual mini-catalog for these sweet and holy days. The ghosts are sharpening their knives for supper, they’re cleaning their bowls and glasses, they're hungry for some menudo and tequila, but they need to know what to read. Well, it’s certainly not too late if you live in El Paso. Just come on down to 701 Texas Avenue and we’ll pack your goodie bags with books. And if you live out of town, well, it’s not too late if you have a good bookstore near you. Or you could even call Cactus Mary Fountaine here at Cinco Puntos and she’ll do what she can to get you books. But meanwhile, we’re sorry for the delay. The Fall is a busy time for Independent Publishing and we’re traveling and working. Ni modo. We thank you always for your support of Cinco Puntos Press.

The Festival of Bones / El Festival de las calaveras: A Little-Bitty Book for the Day of the Dead written and illustrated by Luis San Vicente. On Mexico's Day of the Dead, the skeletons jump for sheer joy. And no wonder: they’ve been cooped up the whole year long and now they’re ready to party. With fantastic illustrations and a wild and fanciful poem, San Vicente captures the spirit of this most marvelous holiday. A short and fun essay, directed toward young readers, explains this important Mexican holiday, and the fun things kids can do to join in the festivities.

El Cucuy: A Bogeyman Story in Spanish and English by Joe Hayes and illustrated by Honorio Robledo. In the Southwest and much of Mexico, the scary bogeyman is known as el Cucuy. With his humped back and his big red ear, el Cucuy was once a standard part of child rearing. Many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans will tell you, "I grew up with el Cucuy." And there are plenty of stories of lazy, disobedient children whose feet were set back on the straight and narrow path by an encounter with this ogre. Although today's parents no longer think it appropriate to rely on threats of calling the local bogeyman to come and carry their children away, the young still delight in tales of bad boys and girls, ones who are much worse than they are, getting the good scare they deserve from El Cucuy. Of course the best tales, like this one, always have a happy ending.

Egad! We’re briefly out of stock of Joe Hayes classic La Llorona, the Weeping Woman. Can you believe that? Our best selling book is so popular she’s all out into the streets looking for her children. She’s arriving—at least in her iconic book form—in November. Not soon enough. Forgive us. But we have something almost as good. Perhaps for some, even better: Joe Hayes telling the story of La Llorona--along with El Cucuy--on the audio compact disk: Two Scary Folktales in Spanish and English. And you can watch Joe telling La Llorona bilingually on his classic DVD. He’s in a mountain New Mexico ghost town. He tells a little bit of Spanish, the same then in English. A classic Spanish guitar is playing in the background. And every once in a while you see La Llorona herself running through the stream. Oh, she’s looking for her children. Mis hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiijjjooooooooos! Mis hiiiiiiiiiiiiiijjooooooooooooos! It’s something else to hear and watch Joe telling the story. Bring your blankets. It's very good to have some place to hide!

CINCO PUNTOS PRESS AT THE TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL

2010-10-14T09:00:00.001-06:00

This weekend, October 17th and 18th, is the Texas Book Festival at the State Capital in Austin, Cinco Puntos Press will be celebrating our usual theme: Book Publishing Independence. We'll be at Booth Number 311. Publishers Johnny Byrd and Bobby Byrd will be the hosts at our booth. Come by and visit, check out our new books, remember the back list and talk the talk and buy some books. Remember, we’re “the publishing house La Llorona built,” so as always we’ll be giving out a free bumper sticker with every purchase: HONK IF YOU’VE SEEN LA LLORONA.

As always, Cinco Puntos Press will be sending our representatives to the State Capital.

Saturday, 12pm, Capitol Extension Room E2.014. Johnny Byrd and Bobby Byrd will be discussing their anthology LONE STAR NOIR which they edited for Akashic Books (Brooklyn). It’s always fun to collaborate with a colleague in this world of independent publishing. They will be joined by contributors Tim Tingle and Sarah Cortez.

Saturday, 12:30pm, Capital Extension Room E2.016. Tom Miller will be on the panel “110 In the Shade -- Writing About the Southwest.” He says he’ll be shamelessly flogging REVENGE OF THE SAGUARO: Offbeat Travels Through America's Southwest.

Sunday, 1:00pm. Children’s Chapter Read Me A Story Tent. Tim Tingle will be telling the story from his new book SALTYPIE: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness into Light, Saltypie is a Native American’s story of moving to Texas. The trouble it brought. Tim says if there's no trouble, there's no story. So there you go. Cynthia Leitich Smith has praised it as an important children's book about growing up Native American. And if you're there on Sunday, ask Tim to conclude with his famous singing of “Amazing Grace” in his native Choctaw.

Texas Bleeds Noir Fiction

2010-10-12T13:35:00.002-06:00

Well, like we didn't have anything else to do, Johnny Byrd and I delighted ourselves by editing Lone Star Noir, an anthology of unpublished crime fiction featuring Texas writers. And, no, Cinco Puntos is not the publisher, Akashic Books of Brooklyn is the publisher. Akashic has a large and very successful series of noir anthologies--Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Rome, Mexico City, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Phoenix for God's sake. All sorts of places. And Akashic publisher Johnny Temple--obviously feeling the need to plug the noir side Texas into the series--asked Johnny Byrd and me to edit Lone Star Noir. He wanted us to go beat the bushes.

The rule is all stories in an Akashic noir collection will be unpublished. Akashic, like Cinco Puntos, likes diversity, so he wanted the greatest mixture of voices we could find. It was what made the looking fun. Akashic and Cinco Puntos have for a long time been sharing booths at conferences and book fairs. We have one of those solid relationships that are the foundation of independent publishing in the United States. They are good friends, good colleagues and they are good citizens in the world of independent publishing. So it was a no-brainer. Yes, we said.

And it's been kicks.

You'll find some great stories (no filler here) in the volume, all unpublished. Even Mary Martha Crumley, the widow of Jim, searched through his archives and found a delightful and unpublished James Crumley story. It was like a visit from Jim's ghost. He brought along his Texas twang and his weird humor to tell a downright scary story of sisters and sex and envy and sorrow. Thanks, Mary Martha. And there's a whole list of good writers (see below). Some known and some new folks getting their feet wet and others in-between. Joe Lansdale, the creme de Texas noir. And Luis Alberto Urrea and David Corbette did a wild collaboration that waltzes across Texas from the Gulf Coast to El Paso and Juarez. Cinco Puntos Press writers contributed--Jessica Powers and Lisa Sandlin--getting their feet good and wet in the genre. The common denominator is good writing. Johnny and I are proud. We'll be in Austin this weekend at the Texas Book Festival doing a panel and selling Lone Star Noir in the big tent and at the Cinco Puntos Press booth. If you're there, come see us. Tim Tingle, Sarah Cortez, Johnny Byrd and me (aka Bobby Byrd) will be on the panel, and we hope some of the other authors are in the audience. Folks like Jesse Sublette, George Wier, Milton Burton, all of whom live in the vicinity. And whoever else is in the neighborhood. Copies should be shipping to your bookstores right now and should be available in the next week or so. We'll put them on our website, but in the meantime, if you are a noir fiction junkie, give us a call and we'll sell you one from our stock.

The List of Writers: James Crumley, Joe Lansdale, Claudia Smith, Ito Romo, Luis Alberto Urrea, David Corbett, George Weir, Sarah Cortez, Jesse Sublette, Dean James, Tim Tingle, Milton Burton, Lisa Sandlin, Bill Crider, and Bobby Byrd.

From Bobby's introduction:

You can drive around Texas for a long time and never meet J.R. Ewing or Woodrow Call. The real Texas hides out in towns and cities like you'll find in Lone Star Noir, and in that very Texas reality, among the everyday good folks of Texas, you'll find the hard-boiled understanding of guns and dope and blood money and greed and hatred and delusion that makes these fourteen stories come alive on the page. Sure, you might catch a glimpse of J.R. and old Woodrow Call, like a shadow at the edge of your sight, feel their heat at your back, catch a whiff of the dead flowers which are their Texas dreams. This is basic foodstuff for a Texas writer telling a story, but the story must always stay true to its place and the people who live there. That's the strength of these stories in Lone Star Noir--the particular place they come from, the language that the characters speak. Yes, they are pieces of the larger puzzle that is Texas, but they are more true to the pieces of ground they reveal. Texas, in all its many places, bleeds noir fiction . . .

CINCO PUNTOS IN SAN ANTONIO THIS WEEKEND

2010-10-06T16:42:00.000-06:00

The Instituto Cultural de México in San Antonio (Hemisfair Park), in collaboration with Gemini Inc and its director Rosemary Catacalos, is presenting the book Incantations: Songs, Spells & Images by Mayan Women by Ambar Past, Maruch Mendes Peres and the Taller Leñateros in San Cristobal, Chiapas. At 6pm on Thursday night, October 7, there will be a discussion with Ambar, Lee Byrd and Bobby Byrd at the Instituto. Immediately following at 7pm, Maya-Tzotzil Maruch Mendez will join Ambar for a Mayan ceremony to celebrate the book and the Mayan women who made it.

On Saturday night, October 9th, Ambar, Lee and Bobby will perform their work of poetry and fiction at 7:00pm at the offices of Gemini Inc at 513 South Presa. Also on Saturday Lee will be giving a workshop in publishing and Bobby will be giving a workshop in poetry. For more information, call Gemini Inc at (210) 734-9673.

Come join us. It should be fun.

CPP Receives the EPCC COMMUNITY SPIRIT AWARD

2010-10-04T09:30:00.081-06:00

On September 18th, the El Paso Community College, as part of its Second Annual EPCC Literary Fiesta, gave Cinco Puntos its Community Spirit Award for 25 years of celebrating literature. All three of us--Johnny Byrd, Lee Byrd and me too, Bobby Byrd--were delighted and honored. And we were in good company. The night before EPCC awarded its Literacy Legacy Award to Pat Mora for her work as a writer and as the principal force behind the annual literacy celebration El Día de los Niños. We were of course very proud. Our good friend Benjamin Alire Sáenz, who couldn’t be there sent out some very nice comments to be read. Novelist Rich Yañez and poet Lawrence Welch likewise honored us with some great thoughts, but most special was that our daughter Susie Byrd, who is the El Paso City Council Representative for District Two, gave a speech honoring us. Susie, of course, is an alumnus of Cinco Puntos. We are always wishing she would come back.

This is what Ben said—

I’m sorry I’m not able to be here, but I just wanted to convey to all of you how absolutely thrilled I am that EPCC is recognizing Cinco Puntos with this award. For the last 25 years, Lee and Bobby Byrd have committed their lives, their energies, their hearts, their passions, their resources and their minds to publishing the highest quality literature that reflects the border culture in which they live. Cinco Puntos Press is not only a local and regional treasure--they are a national treasure. They have published--and continue to publish--books that are contributing to the national debate as to who we are as a people and as a nation. I love and admire Bobby and Lee and I have nothing but respect for what they have done for the writing community of this country. What they have accomplished is no small feat. I am proud and grateful to be one of their authors. I hate to brag, but I believe I may be their biggest fan.

--Benjamin Alire Saenz

●

My Parents Wandered Around for a While

--by Susie Byrd, aka Susannah Mississippi Byrd

My parents wandered around for awhile. Moving from place to place, looking for an anchor. Then when I was 7, after having lived in 15 different places from Colorado to New Mexico, they landed on the 2700 block Louisville Street in El Paso, Texas and haven’t moved since.

They found their anchor on the border, a place so unlike Plainfield, NJ where my mother grew up and Memphis, TN where my father grew up. They fell in love with the wide open spaces, the barren desert landscape, living at the base of a mountain, living five minutes from another country, living in a neighborhood with a little bit of everyone, where everyone belongs. They fell in love with the confusion of the border, a place American but not quite, a place Mexican but not quite. As writers, the language of the border made sense to them, mixing up Spanish and English to find the words that mean what you want to say, rather than confining yourself to one language or the other. Making up words when neither language quite captures the meaning. Language should always mean something. Right?

Cinco Puntos Press is their homage to a place they love, a place that has welcomed them as neighbor. Because they were not trained in the art of publishing, they were free to make the mistakes that built their reputation as an internationally recognized publishing company.

No one seeped in the children book industry headquartered in New York City would have ever recommended publishing a bilingual book about a woman who drowns her children. But when storyteller Joe Hayes tells the legend of La Llorona, he builds the story from both Spanish and English. Mom and Dad knew that La Llorona, a Mexican story passed from generation to generation, belonged to the Spanish language but could also be told in English. So for them it was a no brainer that both languages would share the same page, the same book. It was one of their first books and one of the first bilingual books in the United States. Now with the changing demographics of our country, no one blinks when you offer up bilingual books. Cultural change comes from places like El Paso, from companies like Cinco Puntos Press who build themselves from the pulse of their community. New York follows.

My dad and mom firmly believe in the publishing process as an act of creative discovery, a way for the actors involved to know themselves better. They picked Gloria Osuna Perez to paint the illustrations for Little Gold Star, another bilingual book by Joe Hayes, even though they knew she was dying. She was the right illustrator for the book. She finished three paintings and then told my mom and dad that she probably couldn’t finish. But she had an idea. Her daughter Lucia Angela Perez was an artist. Gloria had sketched the book. Lucia could finish the book. My mom and dad agreed. So while Lucia cared for her mom as she was dying, Gloria would teach Lucia about the colors, how to blend them, what her vision was for the book, how Lucia could help her finish. When Gloria died, Lucia was able to honor her mom and know her mom by finishing her work. The book is gorgeous and a testament to the open hearts of my parents.

The other thing about Cinco Puntos Press that I want you to know is that it is a family business. My brothers and I have all worked there. My husband worked there. And if you aren’t family to start with, you eventually get there. And the remarkable thing about working there is that even if you are packing books or managing the accounts, you are invited into the process of creating and selling books.

Elif Shafak on the politics of fiction

2010-09-20T09:00:00.032-06:00

Great talk on TED by Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, although after watching the video I hesitate identifying her simply as Turkish. She speaks about the power of storytelling, the meaning of crossing borders, following the imagination beyond what is expected. As our friend Patsy Aldana from Groundwood Books reminds all the time (quoting another friend of hers): books are mirrors, books are windows. Shake out 20 minutes from your day and watch this fine talk. Much to think about. And of course now I need to go buy one of her novels.

As a follow up to this discussion: This idea of the politics of fiction is a complicated subject. Indeed, much of the impetus for the emphasis on "multi-culturalism" in U.S. letters from 1970 forward came from the hoity toity ignoring the aesthetics and work of different ethnicities, especially the work of people of color. But now it seems from Shafak's experience that the multi-culturalists have become the gatekeepers. They expect her, for instance, to write sad stories about Muslim women with veils. But she doesn't want to write about what she knows best. She wants her imagination to roam. The important thing, in all instances, is the work itself. Is it a good story, is it a good poem? Literature is always a river flowing downstream, going here and there, depending upon the geography of our imagination. --Bobby

David Thompson, May he rest in peace

2010-09-17T11:42:00.000-06:00

David Thompson (1972-2010)

with his wife McKenna

David Thompson--aka publisher of Busted Flush Press and manager of Murder by the Book Bookstore in Houston--died suddenly Monday at the age of 37. He was a sweet man, a guy who loved what he did, did it very well and stirred the waters gently in the world of crime fiction in the United States. He loved what he did. It radiated from. I knew him as a colleague because Busted Flush is also distributed by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, and Johnny Byrd and I looked very much forward to visiting with David and McKenna at Murder by the Book in late October. David was very excited about Lone Star Noir, an anthology of crime fiction that Johnny and I edited for Akashic Books. David, the generous man that he was, suggested writers and helped me track down others. He was a good guy, a friend to many.

I strongly suggest this link that will take you to novelist Alafair Burke's (yes, that first name is familiar to mystery lovers) blog. It's well worth the read. She really touches upon David the gentle man. Also, follow her link to the Houston Chronicle article about David's romancing of McKenna. Or maybe it was vice versa.

May David rest in peace.

El Grito: ¡Viva, México!

2010-09-16T16:02:00.000-06:00

RINGSIDE SEAT TO A REVOLUTION: AN UNDERGROUND CULTURAL HISTORY OF EL PASO AND JUAREZ: 1893-1923

by David Dorado Romo

"David Romo’s Ringside Seat to a Revolution is a fascinating glimpse into unknown scenes of the Mexican Revolution of 1911. He takes us into El Paso and Juárez-facing one another across the Rio Grande-in the years just before and just after the exciting events of the revolution itself. It is close up and personal history-through the eyes of an extraordinary cast of characters. It is "people’s history" at its best."--Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"David Romo’s micro-history is brilliant. Here you’ll find what official history seems to ignore: the salt of the earth, the surprising anecdote, rumors, the absurd. The odd relationship between El Paso and Mexico makes this book all the more fascinating."--Paco Taibo II, Mexican novelist and historian, author of Ernesto Guevara, Also Known as Che and a biography Pancho Villa.

Truly, the best seats in the house for watching the spectacle of the Mexican Revolution were located along the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas and its sister city Juárez, Chihuahua. Indeed..., these cities--like the city of Boston, Massachusetts, for the American Revolution--served as the intellectual crucible for the Mexican Revolution. This is where the first modern revolution of Latin America began. The heroes and images of this people’s uprising still populate the border’s cultural landscape like ghosts.

JOE HAYES AND BEN SÁENZ PRIZE-WINNERS NOW IN PAPERBACK

2010-09-14T10:30:00.012-06:00

Please note: On the website page for each of the books, directly under the box with title, price and shopping cart button, we've added the GOOGLE PREVIEW feature. Click on that button and you can see a sample of each book. By the way, Cinco Puntos feels very blessed to have these two men publishing books with us.

Dance, Nana, Dance / Baila, Nana, Baila--Joe Hayes’ bilingual collection of stories from the glorious island of Cuba has just been released in paperback. The collection has thirteen tales, a perfect mixture of stories from the Afro-Cuban and Hispano-Cuban traditions, told in Joe’s audience-tested style. His Spanish is perfect, and it reflects the language Joe heard on the island during his many visits there over the last ten years. Dance, Nana, Dance has received many honors--the 2009 Aesop Award; Críticas' Children’s Best Books of 2009; Skipping Stones Honor Book; Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2009; the Anne Izard's Storytellers' Choice Award; and the Américas Book Award Honor Book. Click here to learn more about Joe’s process of creating this book and his visits to Cuba.

Benjamin Saenz' much praised and award-winning children's book The Perfect Season for Dreaming / Un tiempo perfecto para soñar is also now out in paperback. So, what exactly is the perfect season for dreaming? For Octavia Rivera, it’s summer, when the sky is so blue and a few lovely clouds come floating along to decorate it. And on these first long days of summer, he is visited by some very interesting dreams where a cornucopia of wonderful things fall from a piñata. But who can Octavio tell? Tijuana artist Esau Andrade did the magical illustrations. Esau’s work is like Seurat and Magritte becoming best friends. They decide to run away from Europe and take a bus to Guadalajara but the bus gets a flat and they end up painting folk art in a little village in the mountains of Jalisco.

A Perfect Season for Dreaming / Un tiempo perfecto para soñar has been honored on 2008-09 Kids' Indie Next List; with the Tejas Star Book Award; the Paterson Prize Best Book for Children; the Texas Institute of Letters (TIL) Award for Children's Liiterature; Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2009; and as an Américas Book Award Honor Book

The Flood & the Rainbow on Texas Avenue

2010-09-08T15:49:00.000-06:00

One day in July on a Saturday the skies opened up and in a matter of minutes the water was at our door.

The rain came closer and closer to walking right in the front door like he wanted to use the bathroom. Or look at the paintings. Why not? It was raining outside and the wind was blowing.

But of course like most of the monsoon rains in El Paso it blew away in 30 minutes and left us with a rainbow. And driving away that afternoon I saw the rainbow was sitting right at our doorstep. Good, I thought, we need that!

And now the school year has started. Come on down to Cinco Puntos at 701 Texas Avenue in El Paso or at our website in the neighborhood of digitized ether and look over our new books. Good stuff is happening. New books are ready. And we'll be there.

David Pogue & the Mystery of The EBook Wars

2010-08-30T10:26:00.000-06:00

We've been talking e-books for years and now we're performing contortionist tricks to put our books into all the various sorts of platforms (formats). The Kindle. Sony. Nook. This. That. The Other. For novels and books of non-fiction (without graphs and illustrations), it's not hard. We generate a PDF file and email it off to CONSTELLATION. (Constellation is an element of the Perseus Sales and Distribution network. PSD owns Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, our trade distributor. It's complicated. It didn't start out this way.) Anyway, Constellation formats the file into the various platforms for the different readers, downloads them to the various sites, and, ZAP, we're good to go. But, as you know, we also do illustrated books and bilingual books. Not so easy. We have some clients who do the illustrated books quite well, and in a later blog we'll list them. But Joe Hayes bilingual collections of stories--not so easy.Take for instance, Joe's best selling collection of stories in a bilingual format: The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El día que nevó tortillas. Hopefully, you know the book. It's formatted on the page so that the English and Spanish texts are close at hand--opposite pages, following--which doesn't work on an e-book reader. Well, it doesn't work gracefully. So the folks at Constellation and the various e-book companies are unsure how they want to receive this. We've about decided to cut and paste the complete Spanish test of a story after the complete English text of the story. But what do we do with a book like Joe's Bluebonnet Winner, Ghost Sickness / Mal de la Fantasma? It's a novella, so right now we're thinking about placing the complete Spanish text of the book after the complete English text. But either way, it won't be as user friendly as our books.

We certainly would like our readers input about e-books. Do you own one? Do you want one? We don't even have one ourselves yet. We're thinking about buying an IPAD. But our friend Ben Saenz bought an IPAD. He'd had it for about a month and still hadn't downloaded a book yet. Ha! He's busy watching movies and listening to songs and playing. And the selection of books for IPAD is not nearly as big as Kindle. The reason is Apple is still negotiating contracts with publishers. Right now Constellation/PSD is in negotiations, so no CPP books are available yet on IPAD. So now I don't know what we're going to buy.

I wanted David Pogue to help me. His video is fun. But we still don't know what to buy!

MONSTER SCORES AT PEN USA

2010-08-25T10:00:00.008-06:00

Ben Sáenz' Last Night I Sang to the Monster was a finalist for the 2010 PEN USA Literary Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Congratulations to Ben! The Dunderheads by Paul Fleischman and David Roberts was the winner. The awards committee went with frivolity for this year instead of a serious and engrossing look into issues facing teens. Oh well. That's how the publishing ball bounces. It's a big national award, and there are only four finalists. Even though the list won't be posted until next week, PEN has given us clearance to start bragging.We love Ben's Monster book, and we think that it--like his other CPP YA novel Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood--it will be a book that high school teachers will be using for a long time to come. Like Sammy, Monster is a book that doesn't dodge issues but Ben's prose makes a real good read for all of us, teenagers included, who want to understand better teenage alcoholism and dysfunctional families. Zach is a character that all will like and sympathize with and remember for a long time to come.

Cinco Puntos, of course, is proud to be publishing Ben's work. He's a great guy to work with. He comes by the office--we talk books and business and poetry, Lee and he doing a little editing, then we all talk some chisme, we laugh, we have a cup of coffee. And sometimes we take the walk across the bridge to Mexico. El Paso is such a cool place.

And by the way, his much praised and award-winning children's book THE PERFECT SEASON FOR DREAMING / UN TIEMPO PERFECTO PARA SOÑAR is now out in paperback. Tijuana artist Esau Andrade did the magical illustrations. Take, for instance, the park scene in the exact middle of the book--a full two-page spread, like Suerat discovering the truth about Mexico, forgetting all about pointillism and deciding instead to take a bus to Guadalajara:

Skipping Stones Awards Honor Two Cinco Puntos Press Books

2010-08-20T11:20:00.001-06:00

Skipping Stones Multicultural Magazine recognized two Cinco Puntos Press books--Dance, Nana, Dance / Baila, Nana, Baila by Joe Hayes and Pitch Black: Don't Be Skerd by Youme Landowne--for their 2009 Skipping Stones Honor Awards. From their announcement:

Each year we recognize outstanding books and teaching resources with our Annual Skipping Stones Honor Awards. The honored books promote an understanding of cultures, cultivate cooperation and encourage a deeper understanding of the world’s diversity, ecological richness, respect for multiple viewpoints and close relationships within human societies. Bound to provide a great reading adventure, our selection offers a variety of learning experiences for readers of all ages. The winners are presented in three categories—Nature Books, Multicultural Books and Teaching Resources.

We're very proud of this recognition. Skipping Stones is an important magazine. They promote multiculturalism and good ecology. Their ideas about education and teaching are about compassion and understanding. If you're a parent, teacher or librarian, please look at Skipping Stones and then get a subscription. It's a good resource. Cinco Puntos, by the way, is the only publishing company to receive two honor awards of only 14 given for 2009 in their multicultural category.

Amor por la Frontera

2010-08-19T15:28:00.000-06:00

Poster by Benjamin AlireSaénz

Note: I'm a month late. Oh well.

July 17th I attended a Solidarity Procession supporting immigrant rights and immigration reform. Organized by Annunciation House (a shelter and immigrant rights non-profit) here in El Paso, the march was in response to the never-ending violence along the border, this place where we live--in particular, a Border Patrol agent’s recent shooting of a young Mexican man who was on the Mexico side of the river. The young man died. The shooting took place near the El Paso / Avenida Juárez Bridge and was witnessed by people walking back to Mexico. Cinco Puntos author, and El Paso resident, Benjamin Alire Saénz helped organize the march.

--Bobby Byrd

Text from the flyer: IN RESPONSE TO BORDER VIOLENCE

A defining characteristic of the United States is that of a nation of immigrants. The thread and fabric of this nation is a tapestry of nationalities that in many ways is greater than the sum of its parts. Integral to this tapestry is the Hispanic immigrant and especially the Mexican immigrant, who has been coming to the US for generations. Hispanic immigrants, documented and undocumented have helped build the nation. They have harvested our crops, washed our dishes, helped raise our children, cared for our elderly, fought in our wars, built our railroads, sidewalks, rock walls and homes, prepared our food, helped form our church communities, and made us stronger as a nation.

But in the recent past, and especially since 9-11, the nation has seen a growing movement against the Hispanic/Mexican immigrant that seeks to criminalize and dehumanize him or her. To this end, vast amounts of tax dollars are being used to conduct raids on businesses and homes, tear apart mixed documented families, imprison tens of thousands for lack of documents, build fences on the border, and implement enforcement-only policies to resolve the immigration crisis.

For the US/Mexico border, this has meant increased fire-power with calls for even more border agents, the deployment of the National Guard, drones, detention facilities, and the general militarization of border communities. The policy of enforcement and more enforcement in an environment in which the immigrant is vilified and demonized is turning neighbors into enemies. The fruit of enforcement-only policies is violence, the kind of violence that was seen on June 7th with the shooting death of a teenager on the banks of the Rio Grande, and on May 25th with the death of a 35 year old man in San Ysidro, and on July of 2009 with the shooting death of a Border Patrol agent in Campo California.

Joe Hayes and Tim Tingle @ TEACHINGBOOKS.NET

2010-08-16T18:08:00.000-06:00

TEACHINGBOOKS.NET is one of the most interesting and enterprising online educational programs that Cinco Puntos has collaborated with in the promotion of literacy. Knowing that school districts have stringent rules regarding internet usage for teachers and students, teachingbooks.net reviews materials for educational appropriateness. They serve as a gatekeeper of sorts, doing a job that schools and teachers simply don’t have the time or resources to do. Students and teachers can listen to podcasts, watch video and even hear the authors pronounce their names. Teachers can research materials and books and get ideas about teaching reading and writing. And administrators can then feel safe when their teachers and students visit teachingbooks.net.

We’re delighted that TEACHINGBOOKS.NET has featured Cinco Puntos Press authors Joe Hayes and Tim Tingle. Do yourself a favor and take a free ride at teachingbooks.net and listen to these two master storytellers--

Hear Joe Hayes introduce and read an excerpt from Dance, Nana, Dance / Baila, Nana, Baila
Hear Joe Hayes introduce and read an excerpt from Tell Me a Cuento / Cuentame un story
Hear Joe Hayes share the story and pronunciation of his name

Hear Tim Tingle introduce and read an excerpt from Saltypie: A Choctaw Journey from Darkness Into Light
Hear Tim Tingle introduce and read an excerpt from Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom
Hear Tim Tingle share the story and pronunciation of his name

Here's what teachingbooks.net says about itself:

TeachingBooks.net an easy-to-use website that adds a multimedia dimension to the reading experiences of children's and young adult books. Our online database is developed and maintained to include thousands of resources about fiction and nonfiction books used in the K–12 environment, with every resource selected to encourage the integration of multimedia author and book materials into reading and library activities.

SOMOS TODOS JUAREZ: Peace for La Ciudad Juárez.

2010-08-10T13:30:00.003-06:00

Poster by Antonio Castro H. Antonio grew up in Juárez and now lives in El Paso. He certainly feels a deep sorrow for his city as witnessed by the poster. His father, the artist Antonio Castro L., still lives in the home in Juárez where he grew up, but his son wants him to move across to this side. Antonio H, besides being a professor of Graphic Design at UTEP and is the principle designer for his own graphics art firm, has designed many of our prize-winning Cinco Puntos Press titles, and on a number of occasions he’s collaborated with his father Antonio L who is one of our most important illustrators. They are good men, good artists, good friends and good role models for young artists growing up on either side of the border. They are at home on the border and they feel a terrible sadness for this on-going tragedy.

We all wish peace for the City of Juárez.

Terry Poppa, author of Drug Lord, on NPR

2010-08-06T16:30:00.001-06:00

Terry Poppa, author of Drug Lord (CPP 978-1-933693-85-9, October, 2010) was interviewed on NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED this morning. The interview, by Jason Beaubein, was the last in a five-part series covering the never-ending and tragic drug war in Mexico. Cinco Puntos is publishing a new edition of this classic book which introduced the world (including the federal government) to Pablo Acosta and it's the first detailed account of the system of "la plaza" in Mexico's narco-trafficking. Indeed, as Poppa points out, the Mexican government was the administrator and gate-keeper for the illicit trade of drugs. Below the cover image is our catalog copy.

"The [drug smuggling] business goes on, the slaughtered dead pile up, the US agencies continue to ratchet up their budgets, the prisons grow larger and all the real rules of the game are in this book, some kind of masterpiece."—Charles Bowden, from the introduction

"Pablo Acosta was a living legend in his Mexican border town of Ojinaga. He smuggled tremendous amounts of drugs into the United States; he survived numerous attempts on his power—and his life—by rivals; and he blessed the town with charity and civic improvements. He was finally slain in 1987 during a raid by Mexican officials with the cooperation of US law enforcement. Poppa has turned out a detailed and exciting book, covering in depth Acosta's life; the other drug factions that battled with him; the village of Ojinaga; and the logistics of the drug operation. The result is a nonfiction account with enough greed, treachery, shoot-outs, and government corruption to fascinate true crime and crime fiction readers alike. Highly recommended."—Library Journal

Terrence E. Poppa, an award-winning journalist, was a finalist for a 1987 Pulitzer Prize for his investigations into the connection between crime and government in Mexico. He was featured in Standoff in Mexico, a PBS production about fraudulent elections in Mexico. Due to his unique insights into the world of Mexican drug trafficking, Poppa has been widely interviewed on radio and television, including Larry King Live and The O'Reilly Factor.

VOYA Magazine: Cinco Puntos Press by Bobby Byrd

2010-08-05T12:58:00.000-06:00

The following article appeared in the August, 2010 issue (Volume 33, Number 3) of VOYA Magazine. VOYA is the acronym for "Voice of Youth Advocates." We are honored to have the article published in such a well-established, national magazine.

●

Cinco Puntos Press:

Publishing Multicultural Books for American Teens

by Bobby Byrd

“The path has its own intelligence.”

I saw this quotation on the business card of Cherokee poet and performance artist Joy Harjo. Its wisdom makes a lot of sense to Cinco Puntos, especially as a way to navigate the business of being a small and very independent book publisher on the U.S./Mexico Border. In fact, I would argue that this motto epitomizes the Cinco Puntos approach to publishing. Twenty-five years ago Lee and I inaugurated our business in our home in the Five Points neighborhood of El Paso--hence, our company’s name. We had little or no idea what we were doing. And worse, we were doing it in El Paso, the edge of the republic and a long distance away from the accepted “cultural centers” of the nation and the American Southwest.

But independent publishing, we soon discovered is like writing, (Lee is a novelist; I am a poet). It’s local. And “local” in El Paso means the Chicano or Mexican-American experience. So as Cinco Puntos evolved we followed our own path through the cultural landscape and, because of our place, we began to publish books emphasizing the Mexican-American experience with a strong taste of the U.S./Mexico Border. Muy picante. It was natural to us. It was where we lived. And we were publishing books that the big New York City publishing companies ignored. They didn’t understand. How could they? They lived in the wrong place.
But we were lucky. It was 1985 when we started publishing books. The country was waking up to find a new cultural lingo seeping into our shared vocabulary. America was experiencing the great Mexican Diaspora in an unprecedented way. American librarians and educators in Connecticut and Oregon, Nebraska and Mississippi began hearing their students speaking Spanish. They began needing bilingual books and books that spoke of the Mexican and Mexican-American experience. The rest of the country began to experience what comes naturally to people--especially artists and writers--living on the U.S./Mexico Border. They needed books that spoke to this new and growing demographic, especially for their Young Adults.

A perfect example is our book Vatos, a collaboration of poem and photographs between writer Luis Alberto Urrea and photographer José Galvez that has become one of our signature books. Even the story of the book’s inception is unique. One evening, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer José Galvez heard Luis Alberto Urrea read “Hymn to Vatos Who Will Never Be in a Poem” with its chant-like repetitions and its evocation of Chicano manhood. As Luis read each line, an image clicked in José’s memory, and he knew that he had already taken that photograph. Immediately after the reading he approached Luis about putting together a book. They agreed; José put together a mock-up of his vision and sent it through an agent to publishers near and far. For two years the book got nowhere, but in 1999, hearing about the Cinco Puntos Press reputation for publishing books rooted in the Mexican-American experience, José brought the book to us.

We understood immediately. These men celebrated in the book were like our friends and neighbors in the Five Points neighborhood of El Paso. We said Yes, certainly we will publish it.

“Vato” is one of those street terms that is just now entering through the backdoor of the larger culture’s lexicon. It means “dude” or it might be translated as “brother” on the streets of an African-American neighborhood in the Bronx or South Chicago. The lines of the poem, and their adjacent images, provide a collective voice for those Latino men who have been erased or ignored. The words pay tribute to all the fathers, uncles, brothers and others who have typically remained unheard or unnoticed. The entire text consists of sixty-one lines. Every line, except the last one, starts with “All the vatos” and follows with a six beat homage to the modern Latino man. The chant-like rhythm makes for a different kind of reading experience whether one is reading silently or aloud, by oneself or as a choral group. The book instills the belief that ordinary people are extraordinary, and the last line personalizes the main message, “All you vatos, you are not forgotten.”

Vatos was chosen as a YALSA Young Adult Reluctant Readers’ Quick Pick, received an award from the Latino Hall of Fame and was selected for the Texas Library TAYSHAS Reading List. It also has a huge underground reputation among Mexican-American kids who find themselves in the photographs and language of two men who come from the same place that they come from.

Vatos was our first really “Young Adult” book although many before had been used as cross-overs for teaching in the classroom. Yet, as is the way in independent publishing, its publication began leading us down the path toward other Young Adult books. Writers who knew and appreciated Vatos began sending us their manuscripts. And because of its “political” edge, other writers from around the country began contacting us about projects and ideas and manuscripts. Thus, our reputation as a YA publisher has grown immensely. We’ve done historical novels about Hispanics girls in rural 1930s New Mexico (the Abraham sisters Cecilia series), an immigrant Jewish girl in the East Village of New York City in the early 1910s (Eve Tal's Double Crossing and Cursing Columbus), a girl growing up in a barrio on the border and losing her father (The Smell of Old Woman Perfume by Claudia Martinez). We have published two very successful award-winning novels from Benjamin Alire Saénz, the first of which, Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, really launched Ben into the YA marketplace. And now his brilliant novel Last Night I Sang to the Monster about a teenage alcoholic and victim of abuse. Just recently Cinco Puntos has entered the world of graphic novels. Our first was Pitch Black by Youme Landowne and Anthony Horton about a homeless black man who lives in the tunnels beneath the subways in New York City. And just this May we published Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush written by Luis Alberto Urrea and illustrated by Brooklyn graphic artist Christopher Cardinale.

We’ve discovered during all this time that Yes, the path does have its own intelligence. Our job is to be attentive to where it’s going and to always publish good writing and good books that come from the roots of experience.

For us that’s always been a multi-cultural experience. We would have it no other way. It’s how we see America.

—Bobby Byrd

Co-Publisher

Cinco Puntos Press

Tinkers: The Book that Refused to Disappear

2010-07-27T08:58:00.062-06:00

the book that refused to disappear

Everything is made to perish; the wonder of anything at all is that it has not already done so. No, he thought. The wonder of anything is that it was made in the first place. What persists beyond this cataclysm of making and unmaking?

—Tinkers, p119-120, by Paul Harding

It’s old news--Paul Harding’s TINKERS won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Read of course the New York Times article linked above but more importantly read Pat Holt’s UNCENSORED article here for the true skinny about its publication, about its publisher Bellevue Literary Press and about how Lise Solomon, an excited independent sales representative, lit the fire of excitement about the novel.

Tinkers is a wonderful book, full of mystery about the insubstantial nature of the world in which we live. It all looks so solid, so real, but it slips away into the ether. A man, George Washington Crosby, is dying. His house that he built with his own hands and even the skies are literally collapsing in on him. He watches from the hospital bed that has been placed like a coffin in the living room of his home as all these successive worlds tumble in on his mind and heart. His wife, sister, children and grandchildren take turns witnessing the last days, hours and seconds tick away. And through his imagination he opens up his childhood to us, a childhood that witnesses the sufferings of his own father, who suffered from epilepsy, full of equal mystery and suffering. It’s a fine novel. A novella really. And it certainly deserves the Pulitzer.

But we want to reiterate and emphasize that the book was published by Bellevue Literary Press, by one of our independent publishing colleagues. And they published it in trade paperback, not cloth. The New York Times Book Review section didn’t deem it worthy of their attention until it won the Pulitzer.

Ha! The book broke all sorts of publishing rules and assumptions.

Like Cinco Puntos, Bellevue is distributed to the trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution. The book got to Bellevue after Harding had exhausted all of the normal big city avenues. Agents turned him down, big publishers turned him down. Probably thought the novel too old fashioned, too slow-paced--a man dying, he’s an horologist for God’s sake. Their assumption: readers these days want blood and guts, some sex and foul language, they want the novel moving along quickly. Not Bellevue. They believed in the novel. And they convinced sales representatives to believe in the novel. And one of those sales reps, Lise Solomon of Karel/Dutton on the West Coast, really began promoting it. Lise began pushing the snowball downhill. Independent bookstores caught the fever, they started making sure book buyers knew of its importance, they got it into the hands of industry people in…well, in the Big City, beneath the bright lights.

The rest is history. It’s a feel good story about the importance of independent publishing and independent bookselling in the country, the importance of these book people—readers all—who care fiercely about our literature, our culture, our intellectual life.

OOPS! A FORGOTTEN POST: AFTER THE BEA

2010-07-26T07:30:00.001-06:00

[Note: Oy. I wrote this and forgot to post it. It was scheduled for June 2. We put an album of photographs on our FACEBOOK page, so this entry slipped through the crack. The BIG crack. My gosh. But there's some good stuff here. Better late than never. All those old cliches.--Bobby]

We’re back home from the 2010 Book Exposition of America, and we did ourselves proud. This year’s BEA was held at the Javits Center in New York City. As has become our good habit, we share a booth with our friends at Akashic Books. We got good geography--our home base is the aisle of Consortium Book Sales and Distribution with its group of avant publishers steering the world toward a better place. Nobody talks about "product" on this aisle. It's all about books and ideas and culture and progressive politics and art. It's a good and fun place to hang out. There's always folks coming by. And besides, we share a booth with Akashic Books. If there's a slow time, which there's usually not until the last day, we get to talk and laugh with the Akashic folks--Johnny Temple, Ibrahim Ahmad and this year Ben Fama. (We do miss the wild and energetic presence of Johanna Ingalls who now does most of her Akashic duties via skype and email from here residence in Ireland.)

On Wednesday we had an afternoon party celebrating 25 years of Cinco Puntos Press books. CFO and Sales Director Johnny Byrd was the official host. In that august capacity--and in the tradition of true independent publishing--he smuggled in two cases of Tecate can of beer in his suitcase. (Finding Tecate in cans in New York City is a difficult task. Best place to go is Spanish Harlem. The place we found is a few doors west of 116th & Park.) The day of the party he smuggled in three sacks of ice in his backpack and his suitcase, with doubled garbage bags, became our cooler. John had brought cookies from Gussie’s on Piedras Street in El Paso. Writer and folklorist Cynthia Weill was there signing books from her series First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art (see Opuestos here and Abecedarios here . Her new book in the series, Colores de la Vida, will be released in the fall of this year. Artist Christopher Cardinale was there to sign copies of his and Luis Alberto Urrea’s new graphic novel Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush. It was a great party. Lots of people and laughter and book talk and memories. The beer, which was ice cold, and the cookies, which were still fresh and crispy, were all gone in an hour. It was a great party. And the end of a very long day standing on the concrete floors of the Javits Center. Not to worry. We were having dinner with Dana Goldberg, Senior Editor of Children’s Book Press, and Janet del Mundo, Sales and Marketing Director of CBP. Dana, who grew up in NYC/Queens, led us to Casa Havana, a great Cuban restaurant on 8th Avenue just south of 20th. We ate, we talked and laughed. The next day the Cinco Puntos team was up early for the second and last day of the BEA. It's hard work, but it's fun. Book people are cool. Viva el libro!

--Bobby Byrd

David Unger, Novelist and US Rep for the Feria del Libro in Guadalajara,

and Jane Mirandette, founder of the San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Movil in Nicaragua

Independent Sales Representatives for Consortium,

Stephen Williamson and Bill Jordan.

Good guys and members of the now defunct Brothers Karamozof,

an infamous and legendary drinking society.

Johnny Byrd, CFO of CPP; artist Christopher Cardinale,

Dana Goldberg, Senior Editor at Children's Book Press;

and Janet del Mundo, Sales and Marketing Director at Children's Book Press

at the Casa Havana after the anniversary party

Patricia Clark Smith (Valentine's Day 1943--July 11 2010

2010-07-19T10:58:00.000-06:00

Poet, writer and activist Patricia Clark Smith and her John Crawford (Westend Press publisher)

I lifted this obituary from the Albuquerque Journal. I'm sure John wrote it, with the help of many friends and Pat's two sons, Joshua and Caleb.

Patricia (Pat) Clark Smith died peacefully at Women's Hospital in Albuquerque Sunday evening, July 11, 2010. She had been admitted four days earlier and died of successive organ failure. She was surrounded at death by her husband John Crawford; her two sons, Joshua and Caleb; members of her extended family, and her friends; She is survived by her two brothers, Mike Clark, 64, and James Clark, 61; and her two sons, Joshua Smith, 43, and Caleb Smith, 40. A memorial service will be held at the University of New Mexico chapel at 5:00 Tuesday, July 20, 2010. The public is invited to attend. Patricia was born on Valentine's Day in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1943 and lived with her mother, grandmothers, and aunts while her father was serving in the Army Air Corps. When her father returned from the service and the war ended, the family moved to Hampshire Heights, a project on the outskirts of Northampton, Massachusetts. While she was later renowned as an accomplished scholar, poet, and teacher, she always stayed close to her working-class Irish, French Canadian, and Micmac Indian roots. Her childhood friends from Hampshire Heights, whether or not they left New England, remained close to her to the end. Following the war her two brothers were born: Mike, later a sea captain, and Jim, later a musician. Patricia graduated from Deering High School in Portland, Maine in 1960. She attended Smith College as a scholarship student, graduating with a B.A. in 1964, and Yale University from 1964 to 1970, when she was awarded a Ph.D. in English. Meanwhile she married Warren Smith in 1963 and had two sons, Joshua in 1966 and Caleb in 1970. She and her husband taught at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa from 1969 to 1971. From the beginning she attracted the attention of helpful and kindly mentors. The distinguished English professor W.K. Wimsatt, his wife Margaret, and their family befriended her during the Yale years and thereafter. In 1971 her husband Warren was offered a position in the Classics Department at University of New Mexico and Pat followed, soon joining the regular English faculty. She taught English at UNM for thirty-two years, from 1971 to 2003. Early in her career at UNM she also taught at schools connected to several Navajo Indian reservations (Ramah and Sinosti) in New Mexico with a new mentor, pioneering New Mexico early childhood teacher Lenore Wolfe. In the late 1970s she and Warren Smith were divorced. She taught courses in Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman as well as American literature and creative writing. She began to expand her interests in Native American studies. One of her early Ph.D. students, Laguna Pueblo author Paula Gunn Allen, published a revised version of her doctoral dissertation as The Sacred Hoop, a groundbreaking approach to feminist studies in Native American literature, in 1986. Among Patricia's companions throughout this period were Native American writers Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Simon Ortiz and Luci Tapahonso. She published the first book of her own poems, Talking to the Land, in 1979. She married teacher and small press publisher John Crawford in 1987. She published her second book of poems, Changing Your Story, in 1991. She and her husband joined UNM Professors Paul Davis, David Johnson, and Gary Harrison in editing and publishing Western Literature in a World Context, a two-volume college anthology, in 1995. She also published As Long as the Rivers Flow: Stories of Nine Native Americans, with Paula Gunn Allen in 1996; On the Trail of Older Brother: Glous'gap Stories of the Micmac Indians, with Michael RunningWolf in 2000; and a younger reader's biography, Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets in 2003. Those who have known her deeply- and there are many-have praised Patricia's generosity, her ability to bring out the best in others, and her gift of encouragement. She has started many a young writer or scholar on his or her career. Her advocacy for women scholars, multicultural writers, and especially Native American students has moved the teaching profession powerfully in this region. She has also befriended many people she recognizes as her own kind-waitresses, nurses in hospitals, receptionists, clerks in stores. Arrangements are being made for gifts to be donated to Native American educational funds.

She was a good lady, a wise lady. May she rest in peace.

Patricia Clark Smith

2010-07-16T13:26:00.002-06:00

Our friend poet and writer Patricia Clark Smith has died. She was a wise and joyous woman, a passionate and fierce and happy woman. An activist, a feminist and a true American citizen (in the old and very heroic sense) with roots in Native America, Pat made her indelible mark in our world of letters and in our hearts. Pat was a small woman and when she would see me she would hug me like a she-bear, burying her head in my chest, her eyes twinkling. Yes, her eyes twinkled. And when the discussion turned serious, she'd turn her eyes downward, her face scrunched up, her mind and heart working away fiercely so she could make her statements rightly and with passion. For many years now Pat has been married to our friend John Crawford, the publisher of Westend Press, a old-fashioned and very independent publishing company who has specialized in publishing the poetry of women of color. John, a true pioneer in the small press publishing explosion of the 70s, has been a mentor to Lee and me at Cinco Puntos, a good and generous teacher. I've spent a while this morning googling Pat and her work, but sadly there's not a lot of her poetry and short fiction out there right now. I did find the poem below from her book Changing Your Story from Westend, and I found "The Fatness of It," this nice and open-hearted memoir essay from the Weber Series on the Contemporary West.

Lee and I will miss Pat greatly.

--Bobby Byrd

●

from the poem "Blueberry Hill"
for Dennis Jones

And now this morning the story long distance:
you dropping incredibly dead
with Beth your true love by your side
high on some Norwegian mountain,
a blueberry meadow
where they don’t pick blueberries one by one,
drop them plink plank plunk down into a pail
the way Yankees do; oh no,
those Norwegians break off whole twig-ends,
slurp them deliciously through their mouths
and swallow great dusky clouds of berries.
This impressed you,
you, always a man easily thrilled. Dennis,

you are part of me still,
and I imagine how it was,
you sort of dancing, your arms flung wide,
gold fillings glinting in alpine sun
and crying out just before you died,
how can we be glad enough
for such abundance?

Benjamin Saenz on PBS NewsHour

2010-07-01T10:19:00.002-06:00

The PBS NewsHour interviewed Ben Saenz, talking about the US/Mexico Border, and in particular the tragic violence in our sister city Juárez. He reads three moving poems from his new book of poems The Book of What Remains just recently released from Copper Canyon Press. Good job, Ben. This is the type of attention we need here on the border--some compassion, some heart.

Note: If you have trouble seeing or connecting to the PBS NewsHour video below, please go to this link here.

Oprah's Summer Reading List for Kids celebrates 2 CPP Books

2010-06-09T18:00:00.001-06:00

2010 Kids' Reading List: 3 to 5 Years

Opuestos: Mexican Folk Art Opposites in English and Spanish
By Cynthia Weill; illustrations by Martín Santiago and Quirino Santiago

Mexican folk art of hand-carved wood sculptures show opposites,

labeled in both Spanish and English.
Cinco Puntos, 2009. ISBN: 9781933693569

2010 Kids' Reading List: 12 and Up

Last Night I Sang to the Monster
By Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Eighteen-year-old Zach doesn't remember much before he woke up in drug and alcohol treatment, but with the help of therapy and the many people he meets there, he starts to piece together the horrible events that led to his amnesia, and to find a way to begin recovery.

Cinco Puntos, 2009. ISBN: 9781933693583

Poets die too: Leslie Scalapino and Peter Orlovsky

2010-06-03T15:17:00.001-06:00

Cinco Puntos Press--with so many others in the greatly diverse world of American poetry and literature--mourns the passing over the Memorial Day Weekend of poets Leslie Scalapino and Peter Orlovsky. Leslie, besides being a remarkable and influential poet, was an independent publisher and an activist in the community of writers and publishing. Her imprint is O Books, "Publisher of Innovative Works." Best place to learn about Peter Orlovsky, who will be linked in mainstream media as simply the lover of his more famous partner Allen Ginsberg, is Tom Clark's beautiful eulogy link to above. Their spirit of their breath will be missed, their words and actions will be with us.

Leslie Scalapino, 1944-2010

Peter Orlovsky, 1933-2010

Mr. Mendoza is on the Streets!

2010-06-02T13:35:00.000-06:00

The graphic novel Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush--a collaboration between writer Luis Alberto Urrea and artist Christopher Cardinale--is now being shipped to your local bookstores and on-line retailers. Now we'll all be able to answer the question: Who is this Mr. Mendoza and how was he able to climb into the sky?

CINCO PUNTOS CELEBRATES 25 YEARS AT BEA!

2010-05-25T08:11:00.001-06:00

WHAT: 25th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION FOR CINCO PUNTOS PRESS at the BEA
HOW: Beer & Mexican Cookies (aka Galletas)from Gussie's on Piedras Street
WHERE: Booth 4504, BOOK EXPOSITION OF AMERICA, Javits Center in the Consortium Aisle
WHEN: 4pm, Wednesday, May 26th
WHO: BOBBY BYRD and JOHNNY BYRD will be your hosts, pouring beer, serving cookies, and talking the talk.

Yup, Cinco Puntos is celebrating 25 Years of publishing unique and interesting books. They (whoever they are—we’ve always wondered who they are) said it couldn’t be done—an independent press on the U.S./Mexico Border! But lucky for us. We discovered that publishing is like writing—truly an act of self-discovery. So there we were on the very edge of America, publishing great books with these unique ingredients—the magical city of El Paso, hard work, good friends in abundance and lots of good luck coming in our direction. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over the years!

SPECIAL GUEST STARS:

CYNTHIA WEILL: Signing books in the BEA signing area Wednesday, 2-3pm. Cynthia—writer, folk art specialist and educator--is the author of the highly successful First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art. She’ll be signing her newest book in the collection, Colores de la Vida.

Artist CHRISTOPHER CARDINALE: Signing books in the BEA signing area Thursday, 3:30-4:30. Christopher is the acclaimed illustrator of MR. MENDOZA’S PAINTBRUSH with Luis Alberto Urrea.

Both will be at the party as well as a moveable feast of writers and book industry professionals who are always stopping by in the Consortium aisle. We hope to see you this week.

CPP does New York City

2010-05-21T09:14:00.001-06:00

Elinor Nauen and Lee Byrd
Union Square, May 2010

Independent publishing, although fraught with all sorts of uncertainties, can be miraculous and it also can distribute little gifts along the way. Some gifts we receive every year--our annual visits to New York City for Sales Conference where we meet with the Consortium sales team and the independent reps who are out in the world selling our books. When we're there, of course, we spend time wandering around the city before and after. And we get to visit with friends, many of whom are also authors that we publish. Elinor Nauen is a poet we met through our good friend the poet Eileen Myles. Elinor submitted a manuscript to us, The ABCs of Marriage, which we will be publishing in the spring, 2010. It's a New York funky celebration of her marriage in poetry to Johnny Stanton who we got to meet at a dinner shortly after this photograph was taken. Of course, we were enjoying ourselves so much at the dinner that I forgot to take a picture of Johnny. I did run into Johnny again, however. At the St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village, one of the great independent bookstores, I bought a copy of Ron Padgett's memoir of the late great Ted Berrigan, simply called TED, a great book for subway reading if you're a poet or a fan of poetry. But that's where I saw Johnny Stanton again, riff #91, playing the game TRUTH with Ron and Ted. That made me happy. I like it when life starts connecting all the dots.

One day Lee and I went down to Chinatown to see the work of a folk artist, a Chinese man who makes little sculptures from grass. Then we ate and wandered around, coming eventually to Columbus Park. Lee, of course, is President of Cinco Puntos Press, Incorporated. That's okay. She still knows how to dance.

--Bobby Byrd

SERGIO ROSALES in the Big Apple

2010-05-20T09:05:00.002-06:00

During Sales Conference in NYC, our intern from last year, Sergio Rosales, came to our presentation for our fall list, and afterwards we took him out to lunch at the French Roast. Sergio grew up in Chapparal, NM, and went to La Jeff in El Paso. A student at UTEP for his Freshman and part of his Sophomore year, Sergio decided he wanted to work in publishing, and the best place to get a foot in the door was in New York City. He decided to go to NYU, but to do that he needed some more zap on his resume. He applied to serve as an intern at CPP. He got some zap. And he was a great help to us, and we were delighted to see him in NYC. We even introduced him to a few other independent publishers. His foot's in the door.

Youme Landowne

2010-05-17T08:00:00.001-06:00

My big question for the world is,

“How much power do we have

and how much power can we share?”

--Youme Landowne

Author J.L. (aka Jessica) Powers recently interviewed Youme Landowne, writer and illustrator of books for young people. The interview was done in part as preparation for Jessica's upcoming lecture on children's literature at Vermont College of Fine Arts program on Writing for Children and Young Adults in which she'll be featuring Youme's work. Youme's upcoming book from Cinco Puntos Press is Mali Under the Night Sky (October 2010). The interview wanders deeply into the core of what Youme wants to do with her work in celebrating and encouraging the children of the world. Like Jessica, we at Cinco Puntos think Youme is creating books that are a unique vision of what can be done in changing the world of politics in which we live. Indeed, hers are a good reason to keep on publishing books. Here's a very short sample of the much longer interview:

●

Jessica: All of your books have been about homelessness in some way. Why are you so fascinated with the topic?

Youme: I think it has to do with the questions I have about the world. Really, we all have a home—our home is our body on the planet. But there’s the central question of how could anyone not have a home, how could we as humans keep each other from what we need? Of course, hunger is even more fundamental than that, but from my own experience if we have a base, we can get what we need, but if we don’t have a base, there’s no foundation for getting what we need. I think I’m trying to explore the idea that we’re responsible for ourselves and at the same time we’re responsible for each other.

Storyteller Joe Hayes visits Ochoa Elementary in Donna, Texas

2010-05-04T10:21:00.001-06:00

Joe Hayes told stories last week at the A.M. Ochoa Elementary School in Donna, Texas. As you can see from the video the school produced, the kids had a wonderful time. A short video, it's a great collage of photographs of Joe telling stories, the kids enjoying themselves and the apres-storytelling when the kids line up to shake Joe's hand. If you want to know more about Joe and his visits to schools, visit his page at the Cinco Puntos website here.

Home from Tierra del Fuego: David Waag and Roseanna Andrade

2010-04-27T16:22:00.007-06:00

Book people are so cool. Back in the Spring of last year David Waag and Roseanna Andrade bought a sweet red Toyota Land Cruiser, David quit his cherry job as Independent Southwest Sales Rep for Consortium Book Sales and Distribution (Karel/Dutton Group) and together they headed out for Tierra del Fuego at the tail end of South America. They made a wonderfully successful journey full of stories and lessons learned. Now they're done and back on this side of the border and they graced us with a stop off in El Paso to talk and laugh and dream about the future. David is thinking about getting a job in retail sales. Books, of course. He and Roseanna are truly book people. And who knows? Maybe in their future a bookstore of their own.

NEWSBREAK: That great independent bookstore Collected Works of Santa Fe has hired David, and he and Roseanna will be settling in northern New Mexico in the near future. It's good news for Collected Works, it's good news for independent book publishing and it good news for Cinco Puntos to have a good friend nearby. David and Roseanna are avid hikers, bikers and campers. The mountains will enjoy their presence.

Cinco Puntos Press at the L.A. Times Bookfestival, Booth 349

2010-04-22T13:44:00.001-06:00

Cinco Puntos debuts its hand-crafted, twenty-fifth anniversary shopping bags at this weekend’s L.A. Times Festival of Books. If you are in Los Angeles this weekend, visit us at Booth 349. Author and illustrator Jose Lozano joins us Saturday at 3pm in the afternoon to sign his book, Once Around the Block. Be the first person on your block with the commemorative bag. Johnny Byrd will be in the booth with our special guest retailer ex-Sales Rep David Waag, freshly back in country after a one-year journey to Tierra del Fuego with his wife Roseanna Andrade.

Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush Release Party: April 28, Brooklyn

2010-04-21T10:00:00.002-06:00

Here's a rare treat for New York fans. On April 28, Word Books in Brooklyn is hosting a release party for Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush, the new graphic novel by Luis Alberto Urrea and artist Christopher Cardinale. In the years that Christopher and Luis have worked on this wonderful book, they have been in the same city at the same time exactly twice. The opportunity to have the two of them together to celebrate their book was so enticing that Cinco Puntos arranged to have an advance shipment of Mr. Mendoza’s Paintbrush available for Word. If you miss this event, there will not be another opportunity to buy this book until June. This really is a unique chance to meet the book’s collaborators.

Cinco Puntos Loves Librarians, Texas Style

2010-04-20T16:05:00.000-06:00

Left to Right: Ruth Sageibel, Mary Milligan, Felice Feldman, Dorcus Hand, Beth Thames, (upper row) Dana Hutchins and Sue Hall, lower row Martha Edmundson and Loriene Roy, and Lee Byrd. Joe Hayes is the tall guy. Bobby Byrd is the silly guy standing on a chair, taking the photograph and celebrating his 68th birthday all at the same time.

We love librarians! And here’s a great group to love, a few of the many wonderful Texas librarians we met at the Texas Library Association conferernce in San Antonio. This great group joined Joe Hayes and us for breakfast to celebrate our 25th anniversary at the MadHatters in San Antonio. Our good friend Mary Milligan, a mover and shaker in the world of San Antonio library life (and also the wife of the very independent publisher Bryce Milligan of Wings Press), helped us with the event. Just by chance, we invited the librarian, Sue Hall, who runs the library at Woodridge Elementary where our own granddaughter, Emma Birdie Byrd, goes to 4th grade.

Joe Hayes can’t resist the chance to tell a good story, so he told this group an Aesop's story about a donkey that gets thrown into a river and can’t swim. The moral of the story was don't simply do what others tell you to do, otherwise you could lose your...! Wonder if any of them remembered to re-tell it to their kids!!!!

Young People's VOICES: LOUDER THAN A BOMB

2010-04-08T17:07:00.000-06:00

For those of you on FACEBOOK

(you know who you are)

who want to see this very fun video of young people

creating and using their language, go youtube.com here.

And we'll post it on Facebook also.

Louder Than a Bomb
wins 2 prizes,
including the
Roxanne T. Mueller Audience Choice Award
for best film
at the Cleveland International Film Festival

(NOTE: Thanks to poetbloggista Ron Silliman for turning us onto this video.)

American Indian Critic Debbie Reese praises SALTYPIE

2010-04-05T11:33:00.001-06:00

Easter Weekend brought Tim Tingle, Karen Clarkson and Cinco Puntos Press a wonderful gift. Debbie Reese pulled out all the stops in her praise of Tim's forthcoming (June 2010) new book Saltypie, A Choctaw Journey from Darkness to Light. Choctaw artist and first time book illustrator Karen Clarkson received equal praise for her acurate depiction of modern Indian life. Debbie Reese is an American Indian (Nambé Pueblo), children's lit critic who specializes in indigenous issues and who is a very influential blogger @ American Indians in Children's Literature--Critical perspectives of indigenous peoples in children's books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society-at-large. I use the whole subtitle in directing you to her blog so that you can get a sense of the wide ranging issues that she writes about. Please become a fan of Debbie's blog and keep up with these import issues in literature, culture and society concerning the indigenous peoples.

"American Indians are not an ethnic group. We are not a minority culture, and we are not people of color. WE ARE SOVEREIGN NATIONS." --Debbie Reese

We at Cinco Puntos take great pride in Debbie’s review. From our inception, we’ve published multi-cultural and diverse books. We believe, as we’ve said before, “Books are mirrors, books are windows.” We want kids and adults to see themselves in our books, we want kids and adults from different cultures to see and understand the experiences of others. Thus, we make every effort to ensure that the writers and illustrators reflect fully the culture and experience of the book. We want our books to be a true experience. Saltypie is a perfect example of this aim, and we are so delighted that the book strikes such a deep chord in Debbie’s heart.

TOM MILLER & THE REVENGE OF THE SAGUARO

2010-03-31T11:39:00.001-06:00

"Miller is as quirky and delightful as ever, treating the Southwest as a vast midden from which he plucks many odorous but tasty treasures. The fun, as usual, comes from watching Tom digest."--Larry McMurtry

Cinco Puntos is delighted to have published Tom Miller's Revenge of the Saguaro. It's a wacky ride through the peculiar cultural and intellectual geography of the American Southwest. During the Tucson Book Festival in March, where Tom was busy interviewing writers (Luis Urrea, for instance, in a standing-room-only 340 seat auditorium, where Luis waved his new graphic novel from CPP, Mr Mendoza's Paintbrush--thank you, Luis, thank you, Tom), giving workshops, talking about books and signing them, we caught up with him to give us a brief interview about his own very new CPP book, REVENGE OF THE SAGUARO. The interview is puro Tom, full of wit and curiosity. We're delighted to have a reason now to talk to Tom more often.

Two notes before you watch the video. One, if you're reading this on FACEBOOK, go here to watch the video, and/or I'll post it in the video section of FACEBOOK. Two, publishing leads us through peculiar trails. In looking for a cover image, Tom told us about an image that painter Roger Brown did occasioned by the same incident--Death by Raging Saguaro--that inspired the title of Tom's book and one of the essays. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which received much of Brown's art upon his death, was kind enough to let us use the painting for our cover. As you can see, it's perfect. And the discovery of Roger Brown's art, and reading about his unique life, was one more reason that we are very glad to be publishers. It's an occupation that is constantly rewarding our minds, hearts and imagination.

PORTLAND PLA, Booth 1302: LUIS URREA SIGNING MR. MENDOZA'S PAINTBRUSH

2010-03-25T15:00:00.000-06:00

If you're in Portland for the PLA tomorrow morning, Luis Urrea will be signing his brand new graphic novel Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush at our booth, 1302. We had 64 air-shipped in directly from Hong Kong especially for the show. Get them while they're very hot!

Luis Alberto Urrea talks about MR. MENDOZA'S PAINTBRUSH

2010-03-25T13:14:00.001-06:00

In 2009 at the midwinter-ALA in Denver, Luis Alberto Urrea spoke about the forthcoming graphic novel, Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush. The book is a collaboration between Luis, who wrote the story, and artist Christopher Cardinale, who so masterfully created this wonderful graphic novel.

CPP@ PLA in Portland, Booth 1302

2010-03-25T00:23:00.000-06:00

Lee and Bobby Byrd are in Portland for the Public Library Association Conference this week. Come by and say hello in booth 1302. But before they got on the plane in El Paso Lee had to rearrange the Cinco Puntos Press collection at the airport bookstore. She is always fiddling. We're delighted that our books are now in our local airport. If you're in town, go buy some and take home a taste of la Frontera.

Michael Wiegers from Copper Canyon at Cinco Puntos

2010-03-15T09:35:00.006-06:00

Bobby Byrd, Lee Byrd, Ben Saenz, Michael Wiegers, Johnny Byrd

Michael is holding a copy of Incantations which we gifted him.

Michael Wiegers, Executive Editor at Copper Canyon Press, was visiting El Paso on his way to Marfa, Texas. He was staying with Ben Saenz. Copper Canyon is publishing Ben's new book of poems The Book of What Remains and he stopped by to stay with Ben and see El Paso. Part of his El Paso tour, of course, is Ben's other publisher, Cinco Puntos Press. Copper Canyon and Cinco Puntos are both distributed nationally by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, and we've been colleagues and friends for years. That's one of the joys of independent publishing--knowing, and sharing with, fellow publishers. This colleagiality makes for a diverse and intellectually stimulating world of books and ideas. After 17 years of working full time at Copper Canyon Michael is enjoying the luxury of a sabbatical--an extended stay in Marfa as a guest of the Lannan Foundation. He's working on a translation of a Mexico City poet. I forgot the man's name, and so I hope Michael reads this and supplies us with the details.

CPP at TUCSON BOOK FESTIVAL, Booth 26

2010-03-08T17:39:00.004-07:00

Yup, we’ll be at the Tucson Book Festival, Booth 26, this Saturday and Sunday (March 13th and 14th) at the University of Arizona. Last year, the first annual, was lots of fun. This year promises to be even better. Cactus Mary Fountaine and co-publisher Bobby Byrd will be at the booth. And three Cinco Puntos Authors will be featured—Tom Miller, Luis Alberto Urrea and Tim Tingle. Below, in alphabetical order, are their performance schedules along with their new Cinco Puntos books. Check final time schedules on the Tucson Book Festival schedule the day of the event.

Tom Miller

Tom’s newest release is Revenge of the Saguaro: Offbeat Travels Through America’s Southwest just out last month from Cinco Puntos Press. He is the author of Trading With the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro’s Cuba, The Panama Hat Trail and On the Border.

Tom will be interviewing Luis Alberto Urrea (see below) on Saturday 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in the Student Union Gallagher Theater.

He will also be on a panel discussing “The US-Mexico Border: Living and Writing on the Edge” which will broadcast live on C-SPAN on Saturday, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. in the Student Union Gallagher Theater

And Tom will be having a conversation with Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Both McMurtry and Ossana are Academy-Award winning screenwriters and best-selling authors. They will discuss the ups and downs in their storied writing careers. The panel is Sunday, 11:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m., in the Student Union - Ballroom South.

Tim Tingle

Tim Tingle will be celebrating his new illustrated book, Saltypie, A Choctaw Journey from Darkness into Light that was so ably illustrated by Choctaw artist Karen Clarkson. Tim is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He performs lively historical and traditional stories, accompanying himself on the American Indian flute. He has completed 11 storytelling tours for the U.S. Department of Defense in Germany and has performed at the National Storytelling Festival. He will be working hard at the book festival.

Writing Fiction From Life Events: A Writing Workshop (Ages 12-Adult). In this interactive workshop for ages 12 to adult, Tim will demonstrate methods of writing fiction based on turning-points in our lives and the lives around us. Participants will be invited to begin their own short story. Saturday 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., in the Education Building, Room 351.

Capturing the Audience: A Storytelling Workshop for Educators
Tim, who has performed in festivals throughout the U.S. and the world, will lead a workshop for educators on how to tell stories to children and to invite children into their own storytelling. Tim will also share how he tells historical and traditional stories, accompanying himself on the flute and singing Choctaw songs to the rhythm of a drum. Sun 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. in the Education Building - Room 333.

Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom
The Mississippi Choctaws tell many long-remembered tales of aiding runaway slaves. This story depicts the friendship of a young Choctaw girl and a boy whose family lives in bondage, on the eve of the sale of his mother to faraway owners. This oral story is also available as an award-winning picture book. Saturday, 11:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. on the Storytelling Stage

Saltypie: Family Stories of Struggle and Hope. Tim will tell stories about his own family, particularly stories of his grandmother and the hardships she encountered as well as the joy of overcoming. Sunday at 11:30 a.m - 12:30 p.m. on the Storytelling Stage.

Luis Alberto Urrea

To be delivered fresh from the printer at the Tucson Book Festival is Luis Urrea’s Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush—a hilarious coming of age story about a young man visiting his cousins in Rosario, Sinaloa. The story has been reborn as a graphic novel thanks to the magic of artist Christopher Cardinale. Luis is also the author of the national bestseller Devil’s Highway, a nonfiction account of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert, which won the 2004 Lannan Literary Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. And, if it’s great fiction you want, then there are his novels—the highly acclaimed The Hummingbird’s Daughter and Into the Beautiful North. Cinco Puntos is honored to have published three other books by Luis—a collection of short stories, Six Kinds of Sky, which is where “Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush” first appeared; Vatos, a collaboration of Luis’ poem (Luis calls it his “book of poem”) and photographs by Jose Galvez; and Ghost Sickness, a collection of his poetry which is now out of print.

Luis will be interviewed by Tom Miller on Sat 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at the Student Union Gallagher Theater.

On Saturday, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m, he will present “Southwest Inspiration—A Workshop” in room 119 in the Integrated Learning Center.

And Luis will be back, Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for a Q&A Session on the Nuestras Raíces Performance Stage.

Ben Saenz on the Front Page!

2010-03-05T15:16:00.005-07:00

(Photos by Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times)

The El Paso Times put a great article about Benjamin Alire Saenz on the front page of this morning's paper. Please read it soon because after two weeks the Times archives their articles. Written by Ramon Renteria, the article celebrates Ben being named by Poets and Writers magazine as one of the world's most inspiring writers. We are of course proud of Ben, our friend and colleague.

So--in keeping with our 25th anniversary celebration--this brings to mind another story about the history of Cinco Puntos and our friendship with Ben. Sometime around 1990, Lee and I were at Denise Chavez' and Daniel Zolinski's house in Las Cruces at a party for Arturo Islas. We were great fans of Arturo's The Rain God, a book that introduced us to the heart and soul of El Paso, and we wanted to meet him. Cinco Puntos was five years old then, struggling along like only a small independent press can struggle along. Anyway, we got to have a long and wonderful conversation with Arturo. He would die months afterward. What a beautiful and wonderful man he was, really radiant that night with wisdom and the knowledge that he was going to die soon. His Rain God is truly one of the great treasures of our literature. We still feel honored of having the opportunity to know Arturo, however briefly.

Ben was there too. We didn't know him too well at the time. He was celebrating the forthcoming publication of his first book of poems Calendar of Dust which would be followed shortly thereafter by a collection of short stories Flowers for the Broken which would go on to win the American Book Award. Both books were to be published by Broken Moon Press, a boutique press out of Seattle, WN. I use the word "boutique" pejoratively (they did beautiful books) because I was pissed. Why? Because they were wonderful books and I wished deeply that Cinco Puntos had published them. And I told Ben this, just the two of us standing in the foyer of Denise's house. I said something like, "Damnit, Ben, you're always talking about the border and its importance to you and here you are going and publishing books in Seattle, for God's sake." My anger was right there in my voice (I hope I'm a better person now). Ben looked at me for a few seconds, his mind churning at what I had said and the way I had said it. He said simply, "You're right." I've always admired him for listening to me and even agreeing with me. Right there on the spot. A very manly action, I thought. And still do. We've been very good friends ever since.

Ben's next book of poems was Dark and Perfect Angels published by--you guessed it--Cinco Puntos Press. As we were working on that, Ben published a Christmas story in the El Paso Times, something like "Little Diego's Christmas." We read it and thought it would make a great picture book for kids. We talked to Ben and he was delighted to work with us again. Our friend Joe Hayes read it, loved it and suggested we make it a birthday story instead of a Christmas story. That way the book would be a year round book. We contracted with graphic designer and artist Geronimo Garcia (his company is Geronimo Design, one of the tops in El Paso) and A Gift from Papa Diego / Un regalo de Papa Diego was born. It's been one of our best sellers ever with well over 100,000 sold. Like all of Ben's picture books, the book has a politcal subtext, something the parents will understand but which certainly doesn't interfere with the kids simply listening to a good story. Since then we've done a number of books with Ben, all of them well received. Ben and Geronimo even teamed up again recently to create another Little Diego story, The Dog Who Loved Tortillas / La perrita que encantaban las tortillas.

All these years now--it's been a wonderful friendship.

Mil gracias, Ben, y felicidades.

--Bobby

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF PUBLISHING GOOD BOOKS

2010-03-04T12:28:00.002-07:00

Lee Merrill Byrd and Bobby Byrd

in the bathroom at La Mano Press (aka Self-Help Graphics), East Los Angeles

Artemio Rodriguez, Artist & Proprietor

We are just beginning to realize that this year is the 25th Anniversary of Cinco Puntos Press. Lee and I started CPP in 1985 simply because we just weren't happy in our day jobs. We were technical writers and we wanted somehow to escape. Lee writes fiction, I write poetry, we had three kids to feed, a house on Louisville Street to pay for. How could we escape? Oh yes, publishing! In El Paso, Texas? That's a silly idea, huh? But it worked. Sort of. So here we are. During the year we'll add information about the press' history here on the blog, but I thought I'd start the easy way and show some photographs of friends who recently have come visiting--citizens of the body politic of literature. Publishing, to our delight, revealed itself not only as a profession, but as an intellectual endeavor that's taken us into places of ideas and the imagination that we would never have found otherwise.

--Bobby Byrd

José Luis and Julie Orozco with Lee

After tacos and chili relleños at the H&H Carwash

José Luis Orozco is the troubadour of bilingualism, truly a gifted singer and musician. Besides, he's a lot of fun. He makes music and words fun for kids. And for us too. He and Julie were in town visiting schools. We got to spend much time with them, enjoying their company and listening to José sing from his incredibly wide selection of music. Especially over the dinner table one night with family and friends. He sang and he sang. Oh, did he sing. Please visit his website, buy his books for your children and grandchildren, and when you get the chance, go hear him sing. At the H&H the day the picture was taken, it was Brother Maynard Haddad’s birthday, and so of course José Luis stood up and led all the folks in the restaurant in a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday, Maynard.”

John Ross at Cinco Puntos, February 2010

Jornalista John Ross stayed with us for three days, telling us stories from New York, San Francisco, Iraq and the idiosyncratic country of his imagination. He was in El Paso on the Texas leg of his current book tour celebrating El Monstruo: Dread and Redemption in Mexico City from Nation Books. I’m reading the book now. It’s a great read, full of wisdom and humor and anger and prophecy and information. John is literally an old warhorse--journalist, poet, novelist--a displaced New York City intellectual who fought the fight against the machine in the 1960s in San Francisco. Now, it seems in my heart like John has been living in DF since the Aztecs were looking out to the east for the white man to come. And ever since he’s been at war--with his writing and his actions--with Cortez and the curse he left behind him. We met John at Debbie Nathan’s house sometime back in the 1990s and he’s been a friend ever since. In 1998 Cinco Puntos published his novel Tonitiuh’s People: A Novel of the Mexican Cataclysm. It’s a wild epic read through the history of 20th Century Mexico. Hear what he says--

I wrote this novel for revenge, mostly. Justice demanded it. The novel was begun in 1990 after many months on the road with Cuauhtemoc Cardenas as he pursued the presidency of his country and was ultimately cheated of it. At the time, the Salinas' gang occupied my vitriol. Tonatiuh's People has been rewritten several times since to accommodate political realities-the book had an uncanny aptitude for coming true. At each juncture, the text seemed to prophesy what later would be confirmed as fact. To stay ahead of the curve, I was forced to project further and further into the future. Today, the revenge motive is more structural. History has taught me true contempt for the rulers of Mexico-and deepened my faith in its peoples' ability to make a real revolution.

Felicidades a Youme and Hai!

2010-02-25T13:44:00.002-07:00

Youme and Hai on their Wedding Day

All of us here at Cinco Puntos Press--Lee & John & Mary & Rose and Bobby--want to congratulate Youme Landowne and Hai Nguyen on their marriage on January 1, 2010 on the Miami Beach. We've always been honored that Youme has chosen Cinco Puntos for her first three illustrated books. She's a special person, and so we know that Hai too must be special. The married couple went to Vietnam for their honeymoon. This was the first time that Hai has returned to his homeland since 1992 when he was 10 years old. If you want to follow the story of their marriage and their honeymoon, go to their blog here. The blog has wonderful photographs and a description of their Quaker marriage. Please go to the blog and send along your congratulations.

HOWARD ZINN (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010)

2010-01-28T12:49:00.001-07:00

Howard Zinn

(portrait from Identity Theory website

where you will find interviews and articles about Zinn)

Historian Howard Zinn died yesterday. Zinn is most well-known for his classic A People's History of the United States of America, which documents the grassroots activism and its heroes that have always moved this country forward. His writing has been a touchstone for our understanding of publishing as it has for so many of our colleagues in the independent publishing world. But Zinn was much more than his scholarship. He was a speaker who moved people to contribute to their own history through activism and he was, of course, an activist himself. We here at Cinco Puntos learned about Zinn's death through our friend, the sports writer and sports historian David Zirin who counted Zinn as a hero, mentor and friend. You can read David's article here on the Nation website. As David says of Zinn's books, "It was history writ by Robin Hood, speaking to a desire so many share: to actually make history instead of being history's victim."

From the Wikipedia article linked to above, I was especially moved by the description of Zinn's service as a bombardier during the 2nd World War:

Zinn eagerly joined the Army Air Force during World War II to fight fascism, and he bombed targets in Berlin, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Zinn's later anti-war stance was, in part, informed by his own experiences in the military. In April, 1945, he participated in one of the first military uses of napalm, which took place in Royan, France.

The bombings were aimed at German soldiers who were, in Zinn's words, hiding and waiting out the closing days of the war. The attacks killed not only the German soldiers but also French civilians, facts Zinn uncovered nine years after the bombings when he visited Royan to examine documents and interview residents. In his books, The Politics of History and The Zinn Reader, he described how the bombing was ordered at the war's end by decision-makers most probably motivated by the desire for career advancement rather than for legitimate military objectives.

Zinn said his experience as a bombardier, combined with his research into the reasons for and effects of the bombing of Royan, sensitized him to the ethical dilemmas faced by G.I.s during wartime. Zinn questioned the justifications for military operations inflicting civilian casualties in the Allied bombing of cities such as Dresden, Royan, Tokyo, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, Hanoi during the U.S. war in Vietnam, and Baghdad during the U.S. war in Iraq. In his pamphlet "Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence", Zinn laid out the case against targeting civilians.

BEN & EVE IN THE NEWS & ON THE BLOGS

2010-01-07T16:31:00.002-07:00

Poets and Writers Magazine has named Benjamin Alire Sáenz as one of The 50 Most Inspiring Writers in the World. My gosh, we thought he was just Ben. "His novels contain heartbreakingly honest and unsentimental portraits of people struggling with such traumas as alcoholism and sexual molestation," says P&W. Of course, being biased, we think that description sounds a lot like Last Night I Sang to the Monster. Cinco Puntos will be celebrating Ben's novel and all of our new titles weekend after next at the ALA-Midwinter Conference in Boston. Come by and see us at booth number 1331.

At the link below listen to this great podcast of Heidi Estrin of the Book of Life interviewing YA novelist Eve Tal at the annual Jewish Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Conference in NYC. It's a great interview. Eve's interview begins at the 4:40 mark but I suggest listening to the whole thing. It's very interesting. As reported in an earlier post, Eve traveled to the U.S. from her kibbutz in Israel to celebrate her new novel CURSING COLUMBUS. The novel is about growing up as a Jewish immigrant in the Lower East Side of NYC in the early part of last century. She also spoke at the ALAN Strand of the National Conference of Teachers of English and her speech is here.

Jewish Kidlit @92Y sound bite

SUSAN KLAHR, ARTIST

2010-01-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

"I’m part of the story, it’s my story now and it goes on and on and on."

--Susan Klahr

Artist Susan Klahr died New Year’s morning. For the last several years, she had been struggling with cancer, and finally the disease asked her to cross to the other side. She is survived by her husband David and her two sons Sito and Arlo.

Susan has long been an important force within the intellectual and artistic community that makes El Paso/Juárez unique along the U.S./Mexico Border and in the United States. Her art spoke of the world she witnessed before her, especially the people that populated her imagination, people who in Susan's paintings radiate a spiritual presence. A few years ago Lee and I asked Susan, because of her own Jewish immigrant heritage, to paint the cover image for the YA novel Double-Crossing by Eve Tal that Cinco Puntos was publishing. (Last year, during her illness, she painted the cover for its sequel, Cursing Columbus.) During our conversations about the novel, we expressed our admiration for the two paintings I’ve pasted above, Celia and Rose. [Excuse the poor snapshot quality of the images. I took the photographs this morning inside the office with my little Nikon.] One day she showed up with the paintings and asked us to hang them in our office. She wanted people to see them, she didn’t want to roll them up and put them in storage. They’ve been on loan to us ever since.

The paintings are really one piece--Celia is Susan’s grandmother, who died shortly before Susan was born, and Rose is her mother. Rose died when Susan was 14. Susan painted black and white death masks of her grandmother and mother from old snapshots, she then dressed herself in their clothes and was photographed holding the masks in front of her face. Then she painted portraits of herself as her grandmother Celia and her mother Rose. We’ve been lucky here in the offices at Cinco Puntos to see these paintings everyday and to tell admiring visitors about them. Her illness and now her death made these paintings even more poignant and powerful, revealing how our presence continues to live in our families and in the work that we do.

Below, beneath the close-ups of Celia and Rose, are the inscriptions that Susan wrapped in the blue border around each of the paintings. And below those is the story of her grandfather Max and grandmother Celia that Susan wrote for the display of the paintings.

●

CELIA

I never saw her.

The one of five sisters.

The one that Max picked.

The mother of Rose.

ROSE

It's a painting of my mother.

How I never saw her.

She's in my body

and I was in her body.

●

THE STORY OF MAX MY GRANDFATHER

AND CELIA AND ROSE

Whenever I think about telling a story, I think about Max. Max was my grandfather and he had one of the two bedrooms in our apartment and he had a big steamer trunk in there. When he opened the trunk for me it was like magic. It was like this… Once upon a time there was a strong young man named Max and he lived in Chernobyl, near Kiev, in the Ukraine. He called it Russia and he had brothers and sisters, and the youngest sister, in the photo he always showed me, so many years later, looked out at me across time, across the ocean with eyes so large, so luminous (like my son Arlo’s) and hair so black, I wished I could have known her but Max came by himself with his trunk; he braved the unknown alone. He was young, 17 or 18. He made his way across Europe to England or Scotland, speaking not a word but Yiddish, and got on a freighter or a steamer or something and his cousin Joe met him in Philadelphia and gave him a banana and he started eating it with the skin on and what a joke! You greenhorn! Laughed his cousin and Max loved to tell it over and over. He went all the way back a year or so after and came back to America and that was the very last he ever saw any of his family again.

In Chernobyl, Max’s father was the town butcher. I would see them in my mind wandering over hill and green fields, going to neighboring towns to do business. Back there was green and wintry snow and the old life and here (he loved America) was opportunity and no pogroms. Everything was Yiddish, he didn’t need English to make good--leave that to his children. And he was strong and handsome and tall. His shoes were size thirteen and he worked hard. He was young and he worked in a butcher store in New York and upstairs from the store lived a mother with five daughters and this mother came from the old country by herself with her five daughters and she was tough and she was strong and nobody seemed to know how many husbands she had and what happened to them. Her daughters all looked different and she lived to at least one hundred years old and she was my mother’s grandma and she was bubbe to me.

But Max was handsome and he visited upstairs and they would giggle and talk and there were five girls: Celia, Clara, Fanny, Esther and Becky. Clara was the oldest. When I knew her she was a big, square woman with legs that looked like tree stumps to me. Fanny I never knew. In the pictures, she looked thoughtful, exotic. Becky never married. She was fussy and critical, the corners of her mouth turned down. Esther looked like a shiksa. We thought she was pretty. Not dark and mysterious and beautiful like Celia but she was pretty and she put rouge on her cheeks and she was always smiling and kind and generous.

One day the Mother looked at robust Max and put her hands on her hips and said “enough! Which one do you mean?” And Max picked Celia, the most beautiful of her sisters. And she had deep eyes and dark hair and a delicate face and he courted her. So he married Celia and he worked hard and he opened his own butcher shop in the Bronx and he had his picture taken behind the counter and he’s big and strong and proud. In America. And Max and Celia had a daughter and they named her Rose. Rose, an American name for an American girl. Rochel was her Jewish name.

Rose was my mother and this story goes on and on and on. Celia died shortly before I was born and Rose died when I was fourteen years old. I lived with three men, my father, my brother, and my grandfather. It was amazing for me to put on the faces of Celia and Rose: to feel them in my very being. I’m part of the story, it’s my story now and it goes on and on and on.

--Susan Klahr

ESTHER CHAVEZ CANO (1933-2009)

2009-12-30T13:06:00.003-07:00

Esther Chávez Cano died in Juárez on Christmas Day. She was 76 years old. She was a hero, a fronteriza woman who in the early 1990s in Juárez saw the continuing tragedy of women being killed and decided to do something about it. With much help she started Casa Amiga near downtown Juárez. At the time it was one of only six rape crisis centers in Mexico and the only one on the U.S./Mexico Border. She brought international attention the continuing murders of women in Juárez and the uncaring and apathetic response by the Mexican government on all levels--city, state and federal--to these murders. Indeed, as we now know, law enforcement was more concerned with supporting the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. than it was with investigating and prosecuting the murders of women. If anything, the authorities wanted to keep activists like Esther quiet because she brought attention to the vacuum of justice in Juárez. She has received many awards for her work, as the number of obituaries state, but she never veered from the task at hand--helping the women of Juárez.

In 2002, when Cinco Puntos Press was putting together the anthology PURO BORDER: DISPATCHES, GRAFFITI AND SNAPSHOTS FROM THE U.S./MEXICO BORDER, three of us--novelist Jessica Powers, who worked for us at the time, Lee and I—walked over the bridge and went to visit Esther at Casa Amiga. She was a diminutive and very hospitable woman with a quiet way about her but she had a presence that commanded respect. Her work at Casa Amiga was self-evident--women and children were coming and going, and some were staying, being protected inside the walls of the center from husbands or boyfriends who would harm them if they had the chance. Indeed, in December 2001 her receptionist, who had come to the center as a client, was killed by her husband in front of Casa Amiga. When we asked her why she started Casa Amiga, she replied quietly--

“Because I am a woman, because I felt helpless and because I have a conscience.”

Below I am pasting the mostly unedited notes that Lee took during that visit that I found in our archives (Lee also took the photograph above), and below that I am pasting an article by Tessie Borden that originally appeared in the Arizona Republic and that we republished in PURO BORDER. But first, Casa Amiga as always needs financial help. Those who wish to help may do so by making a donation to their account:

**BANCO SANTANDER**
No. Cuenta: 65-50227820-0
CLABE 014164655022782007
Titular CASA AMIGA CENTRO DE CRISIS AC
1427 Suc. Plaza las Torres
Cd. Juárez, Chih. C.P. 32575

●

Notes from Esther Chávez Cano Interview, June 24, 2002

There is terrible violence against women right now in Juarez. She will give us her list of the names of murdered women with pleasure. She gathered the list from reading the newspapers. She only includes the names of murdered women, not of children, or of people who have disappeared. We asked if she thought the authorities had a bigger list and she said it will do no good to check with the authorities. The authorities will not give us access to names. Everyone who has a list has gathered their information from the newspapers. But what of the women who never get mentioned in the newspapers?

She said, Here is an example of a girl who has disappeared and of what has happened with the mother. She shows us a photo of a girl, Brenda Esther Afrara Luna, who disappeared two years ago when she was 15. Several months ago (time is uncertain), the mother was told by the authorities that her daughter has been found. But the mother went and looked and it wasn’t her daughter. Then they told her again they had found her. It was not the body of her daughter, but the body was wearing her daughter’s dress. It was very confusing. Esther said there are many cases like this. The mother in this case has endured a lot of domestic violence herself.

Casa de Amiga was started on February 9, 1999, about three and a half years ago. Esther is the founder. We asked her why she started it. She said because she’s a woman, because she felt helpless, and because she has a conscience. It was funded initially with $31,000 from FEMAP. Last week they received $25,000 from the U.S. embassy [see article below]. It is earmarked for a project to provide therapy for women who suffered incest, rape or violence as children.

Casa de Amiga is the only center of its kind all along the border, the only one in Juarez. There is nothing for battered women.

She mentioned that there have been two deaths in Chihuahua that have similar M.O.s. Why is it different here, we asked. Why is there more violence? This is the border, she said, with its traffic of drugs, its maquiladoras. Poor people come here to seek opportunities, they want to cross the river to live the American dream. In this city there are 500 gangs. There are no opportunities here, conditions are very poor. Have you been to Anapora? It’s a terrible place.

The police hate her. They don’t ignore her. “I would like it if they would ignore me,” she said. They campaign against her. One year and seven months ago, they began their campaign. Governor Patricio doesn’t like her: according to him, she doesn’t do anything right—she’s a terrible director, she steals the money, she herself is a violent woman. And so the stories go. When Esther began talking about the women, Patricio tried to silence her.

In this building, last December 21, 2001, her own receptionist was killed by her husband. This receptionist had four kids, eight years on down, and she was a wonderful worker, good, hard-working, prudent. The husband came to Casa de Amigo to kill her here. From jail, the husband has called for custody of the kids.

When we expressed dismay over this, she said that last week, she had to go rescue a woman who was impregnated by her father. She was 19 and had been raped by him for the last 8 years. She’d had two children. One, a little boy, died of malnourishment. The other, a little girl of 3.5 years, was asked by Esther what had name was. The girl said she had no name. When Esther took the 19 year old woman away, the father went to the Human Rights Agency and demanded that his daughter come back and they agreed to his demands.

There is another girl now who is 11 years old and in the fifth grade. She’s 7 months pregnant. Some woman, a neighbor maybe, took her to a man and he raped her. The father and mother of this girl are separated and she is treated like a puppet.

●

JUAREZ CENTER FIGHTS FOR FORGOTTEN WOMEN

By Tessie Borden
Arizona Republic Mexico City Bureau
Feb. 26, 2002 12:00:00

JUAREZ, Mexico -- It’s 9:30 a.m., and Esther Chavez Cano’s daily personal war with the unwanted problems of this largest of the border cities has begun.

She rushes into her office at Casa Amiga, the rape crisis center that grew out of the violence that has claimed the lives of more than 200 young women here in the past nine years. Close behind is a staff member describing this morning’s emergency: a neighbor found two girls, 8 and 10, wandering in the city’s El Chamizal park the previous night. They told the woman they were running away from their father’s beatings.

Chavez Cano immediately calls the local district attorney’s office, and one gets the feeling she has done this hundreds of times. In a firm but friendly tone, she calls on the attorneys there to take charge of the children and investigate what they say.

“The authorities just don’t do anything,” she whispers while on hold.

Chavez Cano’s Casa Amiga is the only center of its kind on the Mexican side of the 1,950-mile line that separates the country from the United States. Established in February 1999, it receives funding from both U.S. and Mexican organizations.

Chavez Cano, 66, a diminutive, retired accountant whose mild manner causes listeners to lean in just to hear her, is perhaps the most outspoken and militant voice here on violence against women.

In 1993, she noticed a trend among crimes committed in Juarez: dozens of young women were turning up slain in the surrounding desert. The bodies showed evidence of beatings, rape and strangulation. Many of the women fit a distinct profile: tall and thin, with long, dark hair and medium skin, between ages 11 and 25. Often, they came from the ranks of workers who yearly swell Juarez’s population from other parts of rural Mexico to work at border assembly plants, or maquiladoras.

Prodding the police

“They try to pretend these are not serial crimes,” Chavez Cano said of the local authorities. “It just brings your rage out. It makes you boil.”

Chavez Cano and others formed the Liga 8 de Marzo, an awareness group that collected data about the slayings and prodded police to give the murder investigations high priority - often by picketing the police station, holding crosses bearing names of victims.

No one agrees on the exact number of killings that are related. Chavez Cano says about 230 women have been found in the past nine years, the most recent in November when eight bodies were discovered in a shallow pit. Some slayings have been traced to jealous husbands or drug traffickers. But a large number share characteristics that make investigators believe a serial killer and perhaps copycats are at work.

After raising awareness of the problem to a national level, Chavez Cano decided someone should work to prevent the deaths, rather than just clean up after the murderers.

Help from elsewhere

With start-up money from the Maryland-based International Trauma Resource Center, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Mexican Federation of Private Health and Community Development Associations, Chavez Cano opened Casa Amiga near the city center. A paid staff of four and an army of volunteers served 318 clients in Casa Amiga’s first year, providing a 24-hour hotline, counseling and group therapy.

Last year, the center added three staff members and served 5,803 clients, of which 1,172 were new cases.

Chavez Cano now worries about a troubling side issue: child sexual abuse and incest. Fifty-seven of her clients in the first year were raped children. So among her most successful programs is a puppet show that teaches children about “bad” touching and instructs them, in a gentle way, to respect their bodies.
The center takes most of her attention, but Chavez Cano does not let the police off easy when it comes to the slayings of women in the desert. They, in turn, have lashed out at her.

An attitude of disdain

Arturo Chavez Rascón, Chihuahua state’s former attorney general, came in for some of her sharpest barbs because of his comments implying the victims contributed to their own deaths through their dress or lifestyle. It’s an attitude shared by police officers on the beat, who Chavez Cano says discourage families from associating with Casa Amiga.

The center used to receive about $3,000 a month from Juarez for rent and salaries, but that stipend has been cut, Cano said. Now, the center relies on money it gets from donations and showings around Mexico of the hit play The Vagina Monologues.

Tragedy close to home

Recently, the center suffered a blow of a different kind.

In December, Maria Luisa Carsoli Berumen, an abused mother who had become a client and then a staff member at the center, was killed in front of Casa Amiga, witnesses say, by her husband, Ricardo Medina Acosta. The two had had a long and violent history that led to Carsoli Berumen leaving him. A court granted custody of their four children to Medina Acosta. She stayed in town, planning to wait until after the Christmas holidays to resume the custody fight.

On the morning of Dec. 21, the pair argued and struggled outside the center, and she was stabbed twice in the chest as she tried to flee. A black bow at the door expresses the staff’s grief. No one has been in arrested in Carsoli Berumen’s death.

Fighting for respect

“The death of Maria Luisa forces us to work more intensely to instill respect in children, men and women, and to sensitize the authorities to the grave risk for families and all of society that domestic violence represents,” Chavez Cano wrote in a column in the local newspaper.

“Rest in peace, Maria Luisa, and watch over your children so they remain united and sheltered by your loved ones who lament your absence.”

WORDS

2009-12-27T23:24:00.001-07:00

Thanks to poet Ron Silliman's blog which alerted us to this very kid-friendly video.

FELIZ NAVIDAD! A Christmas Card, #2

2009-12-24T13:39:00.020-07:00

Dear Friends and Fans of Cinco Puntos,

Just a little bit more Christmas greetings. We wanted to share snapshots of the folks who work here at Cinco Puntos. The first is from our Christmas Party. It was the only time our two great interns--Amanda Mata and Sergio Rosales--have been at our office at the same time. Both grew up in El Paso and both knew about Cinco Puntos and our books before applying for internships.

Sergio was a student at UTEP when he applied, but his dream was to transfer to New York University, where he wished to pursue a career in publishing. And the first step of his plan has worked. He's off to NYU the first week of January. We wish him well. Amanda has just been with us for a month. She's a student of Dartmouth and is in El Paso while her plans for studying abroad get finalized. In June she heads to Prague. Both Amanda and Sergio have been wonderful assets to the Cinco Puntos family. We ask interns to do all and everything, the same stuff that we do, but we also make it our business that they learn all they can about the publishing industry, especially from an "independent press" point of view. They get to attend meetings, read books being considered for publication and learn about all the nuts and bolts of what we do to keep the boat afloat. We believe they get good experience in this strange business. By the way, the goofy guy on the right is me, Booby Byrd, co-publisher of Cinco Puntos. The beverage we are drinking is not champagne, but a delicious carbonated apple juice that Cactus Mary brought to the party.

These are the folks who make Cinco Puntos get from one day to the next. Starting from the right is Rose Hill. Rose is our IT Manager, doing all the website and newsletter hocus-pocus, but like the rest of us, she puts on all sorts of hats during a single day. Mary Fountaine is next in line. Mary is our Order Fulfillment Manager. That means she manages the warehouse, and she also manages the retail space, plus other bits and pieces of the biz. And the handsome man on the left is Michael Drapes, our accountant. He visits us once a week, usually Friday, bringing us his remarkable head for numbers, his good spirits and, when we're very lucky, some delicacy that he's cooked up at home. The reason they are all here in this snapshot is yesterday was INVENTORY DAY. Mary, Rose and Michael have been counting books all day. The year is ending.

And finally, here's Lee Byrd and son Johnny Byrd. They seem so at ease and at peace in this photograph, huh? John is our Business Manager, or CFO, but really he's involved in every nook and cranny of Cinco Puntos. Without his steady presence over the last few years, Cinco Puntos would not have continued. Lee of course is Co-Publisher and serves as Acquisitions Editor and Managing Editor. No CPP book leaves the building without Lee having read it at least five or six times.

We wish you all a Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year. And we also send out our wishes and prayers for peace and justice for our friends and neighbors in the City of Juarez just five minutes from our business.

FELIZ NAVIDAD! A Christmas Card, #1

2009-12-23T15:12:00.003-07:00

Dear Friends and Fans of Cinco Puntos Press,
Oh, Christmas keeps happening in El Paso. Yesterday we received this wonderful photograph from our friend Ray Caballero (past mayor of El Paso, currently enjoying life as a photographer and historian in Portland with his wife Mary). The photograph is our building at 701 Texas Avenue, must be sometime in the 1920s. Cool, huh? Holmes Dry Cleaning in its first life. Even did some:

GENTS--CLEANING

PRESSING, REPAIRING

Whatever that means. The street is dirt, the warehouse next door (now a lawyer's office) is not there. Ray found it in the incredibly rich archives of the downtown El Paso Library . Below is a photograph I took this morning. It's raining outside, wintry and cold. The solstice is cracking open the dark days, the New Year is at hand. We wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Bobby and Lee Merrill Byrd
Co-Publishers

HOLIDAYS AT CINCO PUNTOS

2009-12-11T12:47:00.001-07:00

Happy Holidays!

THE STORE IS OPEN

The Cinco Puntos Press store is full of wonderful books--and some very unique gifts--to give for Hanukkah and Christmas or simply for some special un-birthday party (we are great believers in the wisdom of Alice's White Rabbit). We are located in downtown El Paso on 701 Texas Avenue and are open Monday through Saturday from 9 to 5 through the holidays. If you live in El Paso or Juárez or Las Cruces or are driving through, drop by and visit with us and look through our bookshelves the old-fashioned way. We'll keep the coffee fresh and buy some biscochos from Gussie's.

BEN SÁENZ CHRISTMAS READING ON KTEP RADIO

Gather the family around the radio on Saturday, December 19 at 1:30 pm, tune in to KTEP, 88.5 FM, and you’ll be able to listen to Benjamin Sáenz reading The Dog Who Loved Tortillas. To see the book itself, or any of our other great books, come on downtown. We hope that KTEP will keep the link live so you can enjoy Ben's reading anytime. By the way, because Ben is a paseño and will be spending most of the season at home, if you want one of his many Cinco Puntos Press books personalized for a special friend, there's a great chance you can get that done. His new novel LAST NIGHT I SANG TO THE MONSTER has received all sorts of national accolades and continues to be considered for some of the year's top prizes.

CALACAS BY CESAR IVAN AND HAND-MADE NATURAL OIL SOAPS BY CACTUS MARY (aka MARY FOUNTAINE)

Cesar Ivan (artist and downtown pioneer) just brought us a batch of his hand-carved, wooden calaca marionets to sell. These dancing skeletons are a delight. Cesar said folks have been asking for them and finally he got some spare time to make a bunch of them. They won't last. You better hurry.

And of course and as always, our office is perfumed by the lovely smells coming from the Cactus Mary Soap display. Her soaps and lotions are all-natural and feature the scents of the desert we call home. Cactus Mary also doubles as Mary Fountaine, the Manager of our Order Fulfillment Department. Thus, you can get personal attention when you're making decisions about buying soap. How could life get better, huh?

EVE TAL's Speech at the NCTE in Philly (November 24, 2009)

2009-12-09T12:09:00.003-07:00

(Publisher's note: Below is the text of Eve's very well received speech at the ALAN Strand Workshop of the National Council of Teachers of English Convention on November 4, 2009, in Philadelphia. The picture above is taken at her kibbutz in Israel, and those below are of her signing books after her speech and Eve with CPP publisher Lee Merrill Byrd and Walter Mayes, aka Walter the Giant.)

I’ve come a long way for these five minutes. I’ve come all the way from the kibbutz in Israel where I live. I’ve come through countless unsold manuscripts. And I’ve come through years of work on my two YA novels, Double Crossing and Cursing Columbus. I’d like to tell you a bit about them, but first I want to tell you a story.

When I was growing up in Rockville Centre, Long Island in the 1950s, my favorite place in the whole world was the town library. The children’s library was downstairs in basement room. Except for science books, I think I read everything in that library and if I had more time, I could tell you about some of my favorite books.

And then one day it happened. I must have been about eleven or twelve. I approached the librarian for recommendations and she told me with a smile, that it was time for me to go upstairs to the adult section of the library. I had read everything there was to read in the children’s section.

I remember climbing the stairs to the adult library. It seemed huge to my eyes. But what could I read there? The librarian upstairs was bewildered by my question. “Why anything you like, dear,” she answered. What could a twelve year old find to read in the adult library?

Of course, I found books to read, bookworms always do. But they weren’t anything like the feast of YA fiction available to today’s teens. Perhaps that’s why I love reading YA fiction. It fills this gap for me. And why I love writing it. The trauma never goes away: facing a library full of books and having nothing to read.

I live on a kibbutz in Israel where I’ve lived more or less since graduating from college. I raised my kids there and published picture books in Hebrew. Frankly, I wouldn’t dare to write something set in present day America. I would feel like an imposter. I haven’t been inside a school in America for many many years. I can’t keep up with the proliferation of technological gadgets, social media, virtual media or the language. The teenagers I know and raised speak a different language, both literally and culturally. So I’m drawn to historical fiction, times and places where both my reader and I are outsiders.

Double Crossing and my newest book Cursing Columbus are about immigrants, probably the ultimate outsider group, and my teenage protagonists Raizel and Lemmel are outsiders by nature. Raizel is shy and struggles with her shyness through both books. Lemmel has a learning disability. He ultimately runs away from his family to live on the streets of NYC. We’re talking 1908 here and life on the streets could be harsh and desperate and dangerous.

Life on the Lower East Side of New York was far from the rosy nostalgic memory the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the original immigrants have today. In a way children’s book are partly to blame for this. All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor was one of my favorite books as a child and became a classic. But the picture it painted of immigrant life was far from reality and in my books I wanted to dispel that romantic nostalgia.

In Double Crossing I told a story based on my own grandfather, the story of an immigrant rejected at Ellis Island and forced to give up his religious beliefs, the very core of his being, to gain acceptance into America. Researching Cursing Columbus, I learned about Jewish gangsters and murderers, white slavery, and the life of street children, many of whom were homeless newspaper boys who ultimately died on the streets. All these found a place in my novel.

You might ask, because I certainly do: is historical fiction relevant for today’s teens? Although Cursing Columbus is set at the turn of the 20th century, the choices Raizel and Lemmel face are choices confronting immigrants in America today. On the one hand there is the need for connection to family and community, which provides a sense of belonging and security. On the other is the need to break free and mount a struggle for individual success and fulfillment in a strange new world.

Sound familiar? It should. In a nutshell I think this is the conflict adolescents face between the safety and familiarity of childhood and the family, and the desire for freedom and individual expression. Both groups perform a balancing act and for both the price can be high, but I believe that it’s a price worth paying.

Eve Tal, Ben Saenz & CPP at NCTE 2009 IN Philly

2009-12-08T16:07:00.002-07:00

Cinco Puntos Press had a booth at the annual conference for the National Council of Teachers of English in Philly the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was a great event--English teachers, excited about good books and the teaching of good books to young people--sharing their ideas and enthusiasm with each other. One particular scene said it all for us. Seeing our edition of Joe Hayes telling the Hispanic legend La Llorona/The Weeping Woman, a young teacher from Illinois began telling us how she teaches the story and how she then will move her class into a discussion of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Another teacher from North Carolina overheard the discussion and asked her a question, and for the next 20 minutes these two teachers stood at our booth discussing books and how and why to use them and what the kids say. It was fun just to listen.

And it got better after the main conference and the exhibit booths closed up shop and the various professional "strands" separated into their own workshops. We were there for the ALAN strand (aka NCTE/Assembly on Literature for Adolescents). The ALAN invited two of our authors EVE TAL (Eve came all the way from her kibbutz in Israel to promote her new historical novel Cursing Columbus about a Russian Jewish immigrant family in NYC's Lower East Side during the early years of last century) and Benjamin Alire Saenz to speak and sign books. It's an interesting concept: 500 teachers of English in a single room listening as a very impressive list of important Young Adult writers give talks ranging from five to 20 minutes. For their attendance, the publishers like CPP give attendees books, and after each writer's talk the teachers line up at autograph tables for the writers to sign their books. The energy for books and literature never flagged. NCTE is an important event and a true testimony to good teachers of literature everywhere.

Be sure to check our blog tomorrow: We'll have a photo of Eve Tal with Walter the Giant (aka Walter Mayes) and the moving speech she gave to the assembled teachers.

Apres Texas Book Fair with Shelf Awareness

2009-11-20T10:00:00.005-07:00

José Lozano after reading from his new ABC book
Once Around the Block / Una vuelta a la manzana.
Besides performing at the TBF José, Reading Rock Stars
invited him to read from his book in area schools.

Shelf Awareness published a nice piece about the Texas-based cutting-edge literacy project READING ROCK STARS. Cinco Puntos has been honored to have a number of our authors perform for the program throughout the state of Texas. The week before the Texas Book Festival, the RRS invited artist and writer José Lozano to perform and talk about his work for Austin area kids. José joined us for the book festival and performed again in the Children's tent. Besides being a children's book writer and illustrator, José is in the vanguard of the L.A. Latino arts scene. Shelf Awareness, by the way, is rapidly becoming an important venue for reviews in the book industry, creating an on-line model to rival traditional review media in printed form. Please visit the Shelf Awareness website and subscribe. Below is a portion of the article about Reading Rock Stars. You can follow the link for the complete piece. And at the bottom are more photos from the Texas Book Festival.

The "Keep Austin Weird" movement in Texas may have been at the forefront of the nationwide "Shop Local" campaign, but now another Austin-based initiative could well be a blueprint from which other states can benefit: the Reading Rock Stars program.

Launched 10 years ago as "Author! Author!," the program began in conjunction with the Texas Book Festival in Austin to bring children's book creators to underserved schools in the area. "We had all these authors coming into town for the festival that we could also invite into the schools," said Blair Newberry, director of outreach for the Texas Book Festival, which was held October 31-November 1. "A few years ago, we changed the name to Reading Rock Stars--that's what authors are to the kids."

The authors read to the children, then sign copies of their books, which are donated by local foundations such as One Sky, ECG, the Meadows and Wright Family Foundations, as well as corporate sponsors like HEB (a grocery chain) and Scholastic, which has donated the books for its featured authors. More than 100 authors have participated so far, and books have been given to more than 25,000 students. For some of them, it's the first book they've ever owned. [TO READ THE COMPLETE POST AND TO SIGN UP FOR SHELF AWARENESS, GO HERE.]

Ben Saenz in our booth at the TBF.
Photo by Cynthia Leitich Smith from her blog.

Ben was in Austin to receive the Tomas Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award
for his YA novel He Forgot to Say Goodbye (Simon & Schuster). There were two winners this year, Ben and Carmen Tafolla for her book The Holy Tortilla and a Pot of Beans (Wings Press). Ben was delighted, of course, to spend much time with us celebrating his new YA novel from Cinco Puntos Last Night I Sang to the Monster and his new illustrated book for young readers
The Dog Who Loved Tortillas / La perrita que le encantaban tortillas.

Cinco Puntos at NCTE in Philly

2009-11-17T12:30:00.007-07:00

The National Council of Teachers of English (aka NCTE) is gathering this weekend in Philadelphia. We're delighted. Philly is one of our favorite convention cities. It's a great walking city and the Reading Terminal Market is just across the street from the Convention Center. Good books and Philly cheesesteaks and Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. Life is good. The NCTE is separated into two parts--the regular convention which is from Friday, Nov 20 to Sunday Nov 22. Cinco Puntos will be displaying our books in the exhibit area at booth 641. And Sunday evening the convention separates into a number of different parts, with aficionados of different disciplines going their separate ways. Cinco Puntos follows the ALAN Strand, teachers of YA fiction. This year's theme is Scattering Light on Our Freedom to Think, See, Imagine, very apropos to being in historic Philadelphia. This is a two day gathering of passionate readers, literature teachers, fans and writers talking together about YA fiction, their favorite books. Lots of panels, lots of face to face talk, lots of free books, lots of books to buy. It's exciting.

Eve Tal is in-country from Israel and she will be in Philly to help us celebrate her new book Cursing Columbus. The novel is the much anticipated sequel to Double Crossing, both novels tracing the life of Raizel, a Jewish girl who with her family immigrates from Russia and settles in the Lower East Side of New York City. Eve will be on the panel New Voices: Spreading Light, Sharing their Work at 8:55am Tuesday.

And Benjamin Alire Sáenz will be there too, signing books at our booth all day Sunday. He has two new books from Cinco Puntos: his newest YA novel Last Night I Sang to the Monster and his illustrated bilingual children's book The Dog Who Loved Tortillas / La perrita que le encantaban tortillas. Ben will be on a 11am panel on Monday morning--Splintered Lights of War and Strife in YA Literature.

Representing Cinco Puntos will be the old folks, Lee and Bobby Byrd.