December 23, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu
Prize-winning author Denise Chávez reads from her humorous, perceptive work at UCSB Campbell Hall
Summary Facts:
- Denise Chávez
- An Afternoon with the Author
- Winner of the American Book Award for Face of an Angel
- Most recently the author of the acclaimed Loving Pedro Infante
- Monday, January 27
- 4 pm / UCSB Campbell Hall
- Free event
- Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
Denise Chávez, winner of the American Book Award and a Lila Acheson Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund Writer’s Award, will present a special afternoon with the author on Monday, January 27 at 4 pm in UCSB Campbell Hall. This is a free event.
Chávez writes perceptive, sensitive tales, ripe with the life of border towns she knows well from living in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Her most recent novel, Loving Pedro Infante, is a Chicana coming-of-age story, rich in romance, particularly of the type taught by the cinema and mid-century Mexican mega-star singer and movie icon Infante, a sexy mix of Cary Grant and Elvis Presley. Author Dagoberto Gilb raved, “Read this book and you’ll soon forget about the handsome Pedro Infante—you’ll be loving the beautiful Denise Chávez. Join her fan club. She’s funny, ribald, and she’s better than the movies.” Publishers Weekly also praised her work, insisting, “Chávez’s voice is at once zany and knowing. She is la gran mitotera—a big troublemaker—stirring up rollicking mischief with wacky humor delivered in the lyrical tempo of Chicano slang.”
Chávez is also the author of Face of an Angel (1995), for which she won the American Book Award and the Premio Aztlán, awarded to an outstanding novel written by a Chicano/a writer. Booklist claims, “This book merits a place in all fiction collections because of the profound respect and understanding of Chicano culture communicated, but more so because a meticulous storyteller has written a mesmerizing gem of a novel.” Chávez’s 1991 short story collection The Last of the Menu Girls also received much critical acclaim for its different perspectives about one character—Rocio Esquibel—at different point in her life. The title story from the book has been re-published in the Norton Anthology of American Literature.
In addition to her fiction writing, Denise Chávez has worked as a playwright, actress and teacher. A dynamic reader, she has presented readings and workshops not only for students at every academic level, but also for the elderly, the developmentally disabled and men and women in prison. Chávez was awarded a Lila Acheson Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund Writer’s Award to present writing workshops in the Las Cruces community from April 2000 to April 2003. Her project, La Frontera Divina/The Divine Frontier, gathers family stories and oral histories from senior citizens and their families.
Chávez is currently working on a novel The King and Queen of Comezón, set on the border, and a collection of essays called Stories from My Third World Backyard. She has been the artistic director of the Border Book Festival, based in Las Cruces, since its inception in 1994.
Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, books by Denise Chávez will be available for purchase and signing at the event. This reading is co-presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, the Department of Chicano Studies, the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor, the UCSB MultiCultural Center, the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the Women’s Studies Program as part of the series A Stranger No More: Diversity in Contemporary America. The event is sponsored by KEYT 1250 AM.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.