Words on a Wire

In this episode listen to the conversation between host, Tim Z. Hernandez and author Lupe Mendez.

He is the founder of Tintero Projects which works with emerging Latinx writers and other writers of color within the Texas Gulf Coast Region, with Houston as its hub. Lupe earned his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at El Paso. Mendez’s work can be seen in print and online formats including the Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast Journal, the Texas Review, the L.A. Review of Books, Split This Rock, Poetry Magazine and Poem-A-Day from the Academy of American Poets. Mendez is the 2022 Texas Poet Laureate. Follow Lupe on Twitter, at @thepoetmendez and on Instagram, at @ellupis.

In this episode listen to the conversation between host, Daniel Chacon,  and memorist, Garret Hongo, about his new book The Perfect Sound: A Memoir in Stereo (Pantheon, 2022).

Hongo's poetry collections are Yellow Light (1982), The River of Heaven (1988), which received the Lamont Poetry Prize and was a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Coral Road (2011).  In non-fiction, he has published The Mirror Diary (2017) and Volcano: A Memoir of Hawaiʻi (1995). His work has been recognized with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Hosts, Tim Z. Hernández and Daniel Chacón get together to talk to award-winning American poet, novelist and writer Benjamin Alire Sáenz.

His first book of poems, Calendar of Dust, won an American Book Award in 1992. His first novel, Carry Me Like Water was a saga that brought together the Victorian novel and the Latin American tradition of magic realism and received much critical attention. His novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, a coming-of-age story about two Mexican-American boys growing up in El Paso, Texas, was a Printz Honor Book, the Stonewall Award winner, the Pura Belpré Award winner, the Lambda Literary Award winner, and a finalist for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award. Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (2021) is the well-awaited sequel.  

In this episode, listen to the conversation between host, Daniel Chacon, and author JJ Amaworo Wilson on his second novel "Nazaré". 

Wilson is a German-born Anglo-American-Nigerian novelist and non-fiction writer. His novel "Damnificados" won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction, the Independent Publishers Book Award, the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award, and the Prix Révélation de Traduction (French edition), and was on Oprah’s Top 10 Books to Read Now list. The novel has been translated into several languages. His second novel is "Nazaré" (PM Press, 2021).

In this episode of Words on a Wire, host, Daniel Chacon interviews author Gris Muñoz.
Gris Muñoz is a frontera poet and storyteller. She is the author of the bilingual poetry and short-story collection, Coatlicue Girl (FlowerSong Books, 2020), most recently named a finalist for the John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry by the Texas Institute of Letters.

In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Daniel Chacón interviews Estella González about her debut short story collection, Chola Salvation, published in 2021 by Arte Público Press.

 González was born and raised in East Los Angeles which inspires her writing. Her writing has been recognized with a Pushcart Prize “Special Mention” and as a “Reading Notable” for The Best American Non-Required Reading.

n this episode of Words on a Wire, host Daniel Chacón interviews Denis O´Hearn about the 20th anniversary of his compelling book Nothing But an Unfinished Song: The Life and Times of Bobby Sands. 

Denis O'Hearn is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso. He has written widely in the fields of political economy, mutual aid, isolated imprisonment and Ireland." 

In this episode listen to the conversation between host Tim Z. Hernandez and Jackie Barragan. 

Barragan  made her first short film documentary JOSIE in 2020. Her film JOSIE has screened in a variety of film festivals around the country. 

Barragan is also a part of the Femme Frontera collective. An organization of Latinx female-identifying filmmakers based out of the Border who’s purpose is to create more opportunities for Latinx, BIPOC, non-binary, and queer filmmakers to take back the narrative in underrepresented communities.

In this episode of Words on a Wire host, Daniel Chacon, interviews author  Ana Castillo. 
Castillo is considered one of the leading voices in Chicana experience and is known for her experimental style as a Latina novelist. She is recipient of PEN Oakland Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring BLACK DOVE: Mamá, Mi’jo, and Me.  2018;  MALCS (Mujeres Activistas en Letras y Cambios Social Institute) Xicana Critical Thought Leader Award, among others. Some of her best seller novels include So Far From God, The Guardians and Peel My Love like an Onion, among other poetry: I Ask the Impossible.

In this episode of Words on a Wire, host Tim Z. Hernandez, interviews poet Sonia Gutierrez.
 Gutiérrez is a poet, professor, and translator. Her poems have appeared in Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Change, edited by Francisco X. Alarcón and Odilia Galván Rodríguez (Best Poetry Book for the 2016 Arizona-New Mexico Book Awards), La Jornada Semanal (México City), and Tres en Suma (Madrid).