Chicago Dispatch

I've come to love the Windy City. The main reason for this trip was to attend a day-long board meeting with the Guild Complex this past Saturday. I remember the first time I became aware of the Guild: they were the home of Tia Chucha Press. Today, the Guild, as you know, is the home of PALABRA PURA. And yet, in a strict sense, the Guild doesn't have a brick and mortar "home." We're a "scrappy and resourceful" organization, which suits us just fine.

And speaking of PP, at the least two installments I had the pleasure of running into, saying hello to, and chatting with, Katie Hartsock. Katie is a poet and she is a media assistant at the Poetry Foundation. She's become a loyal supporter of PALABRA PURA and she recently alerted me to a piece she wrote in Literago---an online publication I wasn't aware of, but which I'm so glad exists---about the Wind Shifts reading in May. Here's how Literago describes itself:

"Launched in March 2007, Literago.org is intended as a portal to news and information about literary goings-on in and around Chicago. The site features a curated calendar with a corresponding weekly newsletter, news, and post-event reviews. Literago is meant to show the world that Chicago isn’t an illiterate sinkhole, but a city with a vibrant literary community. It’s intended as a service to Chicagoans interested in literature: to give them a one-stop shop for noteworthy literary events, happenings, and information. Chicago has a vast number of literary projects — everything from small presses and magazines to giant lit organizations —and the Literago editors would like to see more cohesion, promotion, and community evident outside of events like Printer’s Row Book Fair and the Printer’s Ball. The editors hope Literago will be a useful tool for people like them."

I have nothing but immense admiration for enterprises like this. Hats off to the two co-founders and editors:

Eugenia Williamson & Gretchen Kalwinski

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Coming soon at LETRAS LATINAS BLOG: an interview with the 2009 Letras Latinas Residency Fellow, John Chávez, who is winding down his one month stint at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, MN.