César Visita Librería Pública De Brooklyn (English)

BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY HOSTS FIRST DOMINICAN AUTHORS SERIES 2004 Central Library, 13-01-2004 — Brooklyn, NY, January 2004 – Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) hosts its first Dominican Authors series from January through April 2004, at the Central Library, Grand Army Plaza. In establishing this new series, BPL brings emerging writers together with well-known authors to showcase their work.

On Sunday, January 18, BPL hosts award-winning author Rhina P. Espaillat, short-story writer Junot Díaz and poet César Sánchez Beras. The series continues on Saturday, February 21, with short-fiction writer and essayist Nelly Rosario, who is joined by emerging writers Cleyvis Natera and Marielys Divanne-Pichardo.

The series is hosted by Silvio Torres-Saillant, author of Caribbean Poetics and director of the Latino-Latin American Studies Program at Syracuse University. For further information on the series, which is free and open to the public, please call 718.230.2100 or visit www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org .

Sunday, January 18, 2:00 p.m. – Central Library
Rhina P. Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic, and came with her family to the United States in 1939 at the age of 7. A prolific writer, Espaillat's poetic works include Lapsing to Grace (1992), Where Horizons Go (1998) and Rehearsing Absence (2001). She has also translated works for other Dominican writers including César Sánchez Beras. In 2003, Espaillat was invited to participate in the National Book Festival, sponsored by the First Lady and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Espaillat is the recipient of many awards, including the 1998 T.S. Eliot Prize, the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award and the 2001 Richard Wilbur Award.

Dominican-born writer Junot Díaz is the author of the critically acclaimed short story collection, Drown (1996). His stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Story and The New Yorker , and he edited The Beacon Best of 2001: Great Writing by Women and Men of All Colors and Cultures . A Master of Fine Arts graduate of Cornell University and a professor of Creative Writing at the Massachusettes Institute of Technology (MIT), Díaz is the recipient of many awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship.

César Sánchez Beras is the author of six books of poetry: Memorias del retorno (1993), Travesía de la quinta estación (1994), En blanco y negro (1994), Con el pie forzado (1995), Comenzó a llenarse de pájaros el sueño (1999) and Trovas del mar (2002), a bilingual collection featuring English translations by Rhina P. Espaillat. Beras currently teaches Spanish and Literature at Lawrence High School in Massachusetts where he also organizes and coordinates literary events.

Saturday, February 21, 1:30 p.m. – Central Library
Named a "Writer on the Verge" in 2001 by The Village Voice for her short fiction and personal essays, Nelly Rosario published her first novel, Song of the Water Saints , in 2002. A native of the Dominican Republic, Rosario came to the United States as a child and grew up in Brooklyn where she still resides. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiction Writing from Columbia University.

Cleyvis Natera was born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, in 1977, and came to New York with her family at the age of 11. Natera attended Skidmore College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and English with a concentration in creative writing. She received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from New York University and is currently at work on a novel tentatively called Still .

Marielys Divanne-Pichardo graduated from Columbia University with a Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction Writing. She was born in the Dominican Republic where she lived before moving to New York at the age of 10. Divanne-Pichardo attended public schools in Washington Heights and the South Bronx, and completed a degree in Secondary Education and English Literature at Boston College.

This series continues on Saturday, March 27 at 2:00 p.m. with Leo Suarez and Angie Cruz and on Saturday, April 24 at 2:00 p.m. with Annecy Báez and Loida Maritza Pérez.

This series is sponsored in part by the Latino-Latin American Studies Program at Syracuse University and the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute at City College.