Nuestra Palabra: Flower Song Press Fest: Platicas y Poesia de Califa a Tejas! In a preview of our upcoming Latino Author Series at the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Tony Diaz welcomes our feature guests, all part of the FlowerSong Press Familia!

David Romero

Marisol Cortez

Matt Sedillo

Leticia Urieta

David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press). Romero has received honorariums from over seventy-five colleges and universities in thirty-three different states in the USA.

Rooted in San Antonio, Marisol Cortez writes across genre about place and power for all the other border walking weirdos out there. She is the author of the award-winning South Texas cli-fi novel Luz at Midnight as well as I Call on the Earth, a chapbook of documentary poetry about the forced removal of Mission Trails Mobile Home Community. She writes to remember the land and resist all domination. For updates on projects and publications, visit mcortez.net.

Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle". His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg and various other legends of the past. Sedillo was the recipient of the first ever Dante's Laurel presented in Ravenna Italy, the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry award, a panelist at the 2020 Texas book festival, and a participant in the 2012 San Francisco International Poetry Festival, the 2022 Elba Poetry Festival. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press among other publications.

Leticia Urieta (she/her/hers) is a Tejana writer from Austin, TX. She is a teaching artist in the greater Austin community and the Program Director of Austin Bat Cave, a literary community serving students in the Austin area, as well as the co-director of Barrio Writers Austin and

Pflugerville, a free creative writing program for youth. Leticia is also a freelance writer. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an MFA in Fiction writing from Texas State University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Chicon Street Poets, Lumina, The Offing,

Kweli Journal, Medium, Electric Lit and others. Her chapbook, The Monster was published in 2018 from LibroMobile Press. Her hybrid collection, Las Criaturas, was a finalist for the Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction 2022 from the Texas Institute of Letters, and is out now from FlowerSong Press.

Edward Vidaurre is an award-winning poet and author of eight collections of poetry. He is the 2018-2019 City of McAllen, Texas Poet Laureate, 2022 inductee to the Texas Institute of Letters, and publisher of FlowerSong Press. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Texas Observer, Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as other journals and anthologies. He has edited over 50 books and anthologies. Vidaurre resides in McAllen, Texas with his wife and daughter.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

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Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records

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