Arepas y Poemas....
with Gloria Muñoz and her collection of poems - Danzirly
#NuevasPaginasconLupita is an expanded edition of the mini get-to-know the book and author interview series on Instagram aimed to "spotlight" Latinx authors with books out in 2021. The goal is to connect readers to new and/or old favorite Hispanic/Latinx/e authors and their books!
How does it work?!
Here’s the deal, I came up with a set of casual/random/funny questions to ask each Latinx/e author I interview. For now the questions will all be the same but maybe in the future I’ll launch this into more specific questions to the author or maybe I’ll turn this series into a mini podcast or maybe……well, you get it! The possibilities are endless so make sure you hit the button below so you don’t miss a thing.
If we are new here don’t forget to check out the inaugural post with THE Elisbet Velasquez author of the young adult novel-in-verse When We Make It, which is now available in all bookstores!
Hey Heyyy Book Franz!
I am so excited to be back with another segment of #NuevasPaginasConLupita!
Today, we get to know a bit about the author of Danzirly, a bilingual poetry collection, published by Arizona Press in April of this year. Gloria Muñoz is a Colombian American writer & educator and it’s authors like her that inspired this series.
So lets get into it!
Photo credit: @markfeinmandrums.
Could you tell me a little about where this photo is taken? Is it special to your book in some way?
The photo is of me in my car, a place that has become a go-to writing spot. It's also where I edited many of these poems as a new mom. I'd drive until my daughter fell asleep, park in front of the water somewhere, and write.
Tell me about your book without telling me about your book - share any literary inspirations behind your book! If there are none, the gap you wanted to fill in the literary canon with your book.
It's wedged between punk and cumbia, dichos and promises, empanadas and cranberry sauce, and most of all, between love and rage.
What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?
The first-gen struggle to thrive. Climate change as a collective wound that cannot be healed individually. It's too big. We need each other. I connect with these themes most because they encompass many other aspects of my identity as a Latinx woman living in this century.
If a book was home, where would your home be?
On stilts in water, hoping and sinking, and surrounded by sea birds.
If your book was a famous musician who would it be and why?
Violeta Parra because she sang her truths or Carlos Vives circa 1995. It's a tie.
What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?
Colombian hot chocolate con una arepa. And for something extra, a chunk of cheese melted in the hot chocolate. If you know, you know.
In what ways has access (or little to no access) to Hispanic/Latinx/e literature defined you as a writer?
I grew up reading old white men in school. It wasn't until I read Isabel Allende that I realized my stories might also be worthy of writing down. Since then, my Latinx writing community is everything to me. They are the primas/os/x of my writing life. We get each other like no one else does. I'm grateful for communities that make room for us (I'm looking at you Las Musas & LatinxPitch).
Where can readers keep up with your work?
On Twitter // @bygloriamunoz, Instagram // @bygloriamunoz or my website // gloriamunoz.com
A huge thank you to Gloria Muñoz for taking the time to chat with me about Danzirly! Please make sure you purchase a copy of her book #SupportLatinxLit.
Synopsis for Danzirly:
Danzirly is a striking bilingual poetry collection that fiercely examines the nuances of the American Dream for Latinx people in the United States. With a backdrop of stringent immigration policies, the #MeToo movement, and the increasingly tangible threat of climate change, this collection considers multigenerational Latinx identities in a rapidly changing country and world. Through the author’s Colombian American lens, the poems explore the intersections of culture, gender, history, and intergenerational grief.
Danzirly does not shy away from confronting traditional gender roles, religion, and anxieties surrounding climate change and the digital age. Gloria Muñoz addresses Latinx stereotypes and powerfully dismantles them in poetic form, juxtaposing the promised wonders of a life in America with the harsh realities that immigrants face as they build their lives and raise their families here. Winner of the Academy of American Poets’ Ambroggio Prize, this collection of poems is an unforgettable reckoning of the grief and beauty that pulses through twenty-first-century America.
Bio for Gloria Muñoz from her website:
Gloria Muñoz is a Colombian American writer, literary translator, and advocate for multilingual literacy and writing. Her poetry book Dawn's Early / Danzirly was awarded the Academy of American Poets 2019 Ambroggio Prize. She has also been honored by Lumina’s Multilingual Nonfiction Writing Award, a Las Musas Mentorship for Latinx and nonbinary authors, a New York State Summer Writers Institute Fellowship, a Creative Pinellas Grant, the Estelle J. Zbar Poetry Prize, the Bettye Newman Poetry Award, a Gen Yes Doris Duke Foundation Artist Award, a University of South Florida Humanities Poetry Award, a Think Small to Think Big Artist Grant, and a St. Petersburg Arts Alliance’s Jim Rolston Professional Development Grant. Her writing has appeared in Puerto del Sol, VIDA Review, Acentos Review, Lumina, the Rumpus, Yes Poetry, Juke Joint, Best New Poets, Sweet, Burrow Press, Cosmonauts Avenue, Entropy, Wildness, Cagibi, and elsewhere.Muñoz is also the author of the chapbook Your Biome Has Found You. In the fall of 2019, she was selected to attend the inaugural Tin House YA Fiction Workshop. A proponent of cross-disciplinary collaboration, Muñoz has worked alongside botanists, musicians, dancers, historians, classicists, visual artists, conservationists, and neuroscientists. She is a co-founder of Pitch Her Productions and she is one-half of the songwriting team Moonlit Musíca.
Muñoz holds degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and the University of South Florida. She teaches creative writing at Eckerd College. She writes, teaches, and lives in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Friendly reminder that the best ways you can support Latinx/e authors and Latinx/e literature is by doing the following:
Leave a review for their books on any website that sells books
Request that your local library carry a copy
Purchase a copy of a friend, family member, your nemesis (hey! I’m sure they read too).
Shout about the book on any social media platform or to your friends and family!
Share this interview widely! Word of mouth does wonders for connecting readers to books.