In conversation with Alison Hawthorne Deming, poet and essayist
Martínez, an award-winning author and performer, takes us on a deeply personal tour of the 21st century West—far from our romantic illusions of John Wayne, cacti and cowboys—and discusses the political and demographic upheaval in this most iconic of American landscapes.
Rubén Martínez, an Emmy-winning journalist and poet, is the author of several books, including Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail and The New Americans. His new book is Desert America: Boom and Bust in the New Old West. He lives in Los Angeles, where he holds the Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature and Writing at Loyola Marymount University.
Alison Hawthorne Deming is author for four books of poetry and four books of nonfiction with Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit forthcoming. Her work has been widely anthologized including in The Norton Book of Nature Writing and Best American Science and Nature Writing. Long dedicated to conversations between art and science, between environmentalism and social justice, she is coeditor with Lauret E. Savoy of The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity and the Natural World. Former director at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, Alison is currently a professor at UA.
Main Image: Photo of New Mexico by Rubén Martínez
ALOUD is one of the many free programs the Library Foundation makes possible at the Los Angeles Public Library. Most ALOUD author programs are followed by book signings. To help sustain this valuable cultural exchange, at least one copy of the author’s featured book must be purchased from the Library Store if you wish to participate in the post-program book signing. Other non-featured books by the author may be eligible for the signing without having been purchased at the Library Store. Proceeds support the Los Angeles Public Library. Library Foundation members receive a 15% discount on all Library Store purchases.
Unless otherwise indicated, ALOUD programs take place at the Los Angeles Central Library's Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071.
Daniel Olivas interviews Ruben Martinez for LARB
