tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22691412277895674382024-03-14T11:50:42.198-07:00René Saldaña, Jr.On Writing, On ReadingRené Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.comBlogger207125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-59412880313421207102023-12-13T16:13:00.000-08:002023-12-13T16:18:11.314-08:00On Glossaries and ItalicizingAuthor and creative writing teacher John Gardner contends that "the most important single notion in the theory of fiction" is that of fiction or storytelling as a "vivid and continuous dream" (<i>The Art of Fiction</i>, 97). The vivid part is easy to figure out: make an image of your story for the reader. Throw in details where details are necessary; for for the concrete, the tangible. That movie in a reader's head, right?<div><br /></div><div>As to the "continuity principle" of Gardner's theory, this is a bit messier. He states that "the reader should never be distracted from the image or scene," presumably a vivid image or scene (98). Implied in this statement is that whatever would distract the reader is the result of something the writer did or didn't do or did poorly. "[T]he sensitive reader shrinks away a little, as we do when an interesting conversationalist picks his nose" (99). Get the picture?</div><div><br /></div><div>So, a good story should be able to carry itself because it is a good story. But what if the writer of that good story uses Spanish? At a reading for my first novel, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jumping-Tree-Laurel-Leaf-Books-ebook/dp/B0027MJTNI/ref=sr_1_1?crid=151JD1OFKSS9B&keywords=The+Jumping+Tree+saldana&qid=1702513068&sprefix=the+jumping+tree+saldana%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-1" target="_blank">The Jumping Tree</a></i> (2001) I was asked by a girl named Rachel why I wouldn't use a glossary of Spanish terms like Gary Soto does in his work. I debated wether to tell her the truth, academic though the answer might be, or to give her some stock answer. I went with the truth: that back in my day reading Shakespeare in high school, if I didn't know the meaning of a word, the teacher would recommend I crack open a dictionary and find out for myself. Shakespeare didn't provide readers with a glossary of his English. I added that I did include context clues as to the meaning of words and phrases, so a reader shouldn't find herself completely lost.</div><div><br /></div><div>But actually did give it some thought during the writing of the book: a glossary at the bottom of the corresponding page or at the end of the book, or not at all? I went with the last choice--none at all. And mostly because when I am in the middle of a good story and the author uses a language foreign to me the last thing I want to do is to interrupt the flow of the story, the continuity of it by turning to the end of the book, finding out what a word might mean, then try to get back into the groove of the story where I left off. I can well find the very spot where I dropped away, but it's unlikely that I get back into the emotional groove. If a word or phrase knocks my reader away out of the flow, then shame on me, but normally I try to think through my use of Spanish: is is necessary, is it authentic in use, is it smooth?</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't italicize either, mostly. I grew up in the U.S. speaking both Spanish and English, and so by default both are U.S. languages. Neither foreign to me, a U.S.-born citizen, as the user of them. I will use italics when in a conversation a character who is not a U.S. citizen speaks his or her language and it is a foreign language to the narrator. So if Rey's Mexican grandmother in The Jumping Tree speaks Spanish, in that case I would italicize. When Rey speaks Spanish to his best friend, Chuy, both of whom are U.S. citizen, then no italics. It's that simple. Or that complicated. Take your pick.</div><div><br /></div>René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-12218376920735540122023-12-10T17:20:00.000-08:002023-12-13T16:17:24.142-08:00<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> So, two years have passed since my last post, but what wonderful two years they've been! For one, I've been promoted to Professor, the pinnacle for an academic. I've documented this experience, which has not been a clean one, in a book chapter I co-authored with former student, now-colleague Dr. Elizabeth Stewart. The title of our chapter is titled "When a Single Song Just Won't Do: The Mixtape as Research Methodology" found in DeHart & Hash's <i><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Arts-Based-Research-Across-Visual-Media-in-Education-Expanding-Visual-Epistemology/DeHart-Hash/p/book/9781032279183" target="_blank">Arts-Based Research Across Visual Methodology: Expanding Visual Epistemology</a></i> (Routledge, 2023). But I've made it to this level and trying to make the best of it. If folks on the path think it's about publishing or perishing on the way up, it doesn't end with promotion and tenure or promotion to full. The expectation to keep publishing only increases. We become, in a sense, show windows: national visibility and recognition become paramount. So we keep writing and publishing. What changes is that I finally get the opportunity to write what makes me happy. Sure, in a college of education, I'm still a social scientist, or what passes, very loosely for one, so I write up my research.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">But now, I'm experimenting with arts-based research and writing. Two titles forthcoming in this vein, both poetry collections. The first is called <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eventually-Inevitably-Tarde-temprano-inevitable/dp/1558859810/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2JPF6NHA322D1&keywords=eventually%2C+inevitably+saldana&qid=1702255311&sprefix=eventually%2C+inevitably+saldanq%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Eventually, Inevitably: My Writing Life in Verse</a> </i>(Arte Público Press/Piñata Books, 2023), pictured here: </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFhyphenhyphenJ85aK6pag2ErASyUP6tr6R8z2P4yA-8zQtMVLSZL-9778tHM_07JPYZfR2wqHAosroylcBKMGEC4VJDrVt9VMasANo1xEhdRi5qrTs_t3MDrxuLtIg7TGUuekOW3YB0S9DDcaoqXGasoURC5ngEgHB6VHtVsy8iIP4ahOV3m34l4GT-mOF2CyuX2A/s1414/Screen%20Shot%202023-08-16%20at%207.50.45%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="950" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFhyphenhyphenJ85aK6pag2ErASyUP6tr6R8z2P4yA-8zQtMVLSZL-9778tHM_07JPYZfR2wqHAosroylcBKMGEC4VJDrVt9VMasANo1xEhdRi5qrTs_t3MDrxuLtIg7TGUuekOW3YB0S9DDcaoqXGasoURC5ngEgHB6VHtVsy8iIP4ahOV3m34l4GT-mOF2CyuX2A/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-08-16%20at%207.50.45%20PM.png" width="215" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Originally slated for an October print date, it will be out toward the end of December now. So a book for the new year? The book captures the story or stories of how I grew into the writing business, dating back decades prior to my own birth, if you can believe it. But mostly, it's autobiographical poems about writing and how it is all around us, if we're paying attention. One could argue that this is not an arts-based research title since I didn't originally set out to write it as such; but it is non-fiction, and it recounts with some research pieces, a piece of my life and my learning. It's not a hill I would die on, though.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The next book is very much an arts-based research project. It is another book of poems called <i>Strangers in Our Own Land: A Poetic Autoethnography</i> (FlowerSong, 2024). Here's a link to the brilliant independent press run by Edward Vidaurre in case you want to support it financially and or sign up for their newsletter (<a href="https://www.flowersongpress.com/">https://www.flowersongpress.com/</a>). Not listed yet, my book tells of my fears of deportation growing up in the Rio Grande Valley, a very visceral fear I experienced every time we drove to San Antonio or Houston to visit family and had to verify our U.S. citizenship at the Checkpoint (including this last Thanksgiving traveling with my two youngest kids, telling them a mile or two away from the Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias to answer "Yessir" to the agent when he asked if we were citizens; my son later told me he was about to say "Yessir" when he changed his mind last second and said instead, "Yes ma'am."). I also write about how perhaps my fear, though real, was nothing compared to the fear illegal immigrants feel as they make the trek here, and the other, more real fear of being stuck in the trailer of an 18-wheeled truck in the Texas heat, no A/C, the oxygen running out, in utter darkness listening to what very well could be the last breath of that boy who took a spot next to you after climbing in, the dream turned nightmare.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I also published my 6th and last installment in the Mickey Rangel Mystery series. This one is titled <a href="https://www.amazon.com/siempre-Mystery-Colección-Detective-Privado/dp/1558859667/ref=rvi_d_sccl_3/147-6748689-6340546?pd_rd_w=ehKzs&content-id=amzn1.sym.f5690a4d-f2bb-45d9-9d1b-736fee412437&pf_rd_p=f5690a4d-f2bb-45d9-9d1b-736fee412437&pf_rd_r=QC7GJXD9YDXCKKMJEW5T&pd_rd_wg=95eBq&pd_rd_r=5b595736-4616-46eb-a33d-36eacee9558f&pd_rd_i=1558859667&psc=1" target="_blank"><i>A Case is Still a Case </i></a>(Arte Publico Press/Piñata Books, 2023) , and like the other five, this one is bilingual in the classic flip format: you can never go wrong on what language you choose to read it in as there is never a language designated as the primary one. If you don't want to read it in English today, simply flip it upside down and backwards, and you are now reading it in Spanish. In this last story, online-certified PI Mickey Rangel has to come to grips with the fact that detective work is not gender-specific. It's a job that girls can do, too, and sometimes a job they can do better. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuEpghnHQ5wRNHVhkD0bdUli1UJ7JDp9MjoHOTj1vsvS1cA3Q9vMJkKLQi6lqzNVPJtvQ4C4fgisbc4edRGw62H3JVwVoNPIsmrVvtT9XdLREzVLtymq8ojXQBDcXcFMWHtvGBHbhaYgrNzvmZkbOcZS89HSrhDdCeAnQOGmEjNV5BnH4o0VBmhvUZ1CU/s1030/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-10%20at%207.24.40%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1030" data-original-width="692" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuEpghnHQ5wRNHVhkD0bdUli1UJ7JDp9MjoHOTj1vsvS1cA3Q9vMJkKLQi6lqzNVPJtvQ4C4fgisbc4edRGw62H3JVwVoNPIsmrVvtT9XdLREzVLtymq8ojXQBDcXcFMWHtvGBHbhaYgrNzvmZkbOcZS89HSrhDdCeAnQOGmEjNV5BnH4o0VBmhvUZ1CU/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-10%20at%207.24.40%20PM.png" width="215" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I also found homes for other academic pieces. Following is a list:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">"The Many Ways of Sources: Giving Voice to the Research Data" in</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Rigorous Poetics: Poetic Inquiry in Action Across the Hemispheres</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">. Willmington DE: Vernon Press. </span><span style="text-indent: -24px;">(2024).</span><span style="text-indent: -24px;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">"Degollado’s</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">THROW</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">: Nepantla: New Name, New Self" in Malo and Hill (Eds.)</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Oxford Handbook of Young Adult Literature</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">. New York NY: Oxford University Press. </span><span style="text-indent: -24px;">(2024).</span><span style="text-indent: -24px;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">With Stewart, E. </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> "In Search of the Aesthetic: An Arts-based Approach to Writing Up Our Research" in Lesley, Saldaña, Smit, and Jung (Eds.)</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Liminal Spaces of Writing in Adolescent and Adult Education</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">(2022).</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">With Stewart, E.,</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Lesley, M.,</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">and</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Beach, W.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> "Perspectives in Cultivating a Qualitative Researcher’s Identity" in A. Zimmerman (Ed.)</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Developing Students’ Scholarly Dispositions in Higher Education</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. </span><span style="text-indent: -24px;">(2022).</span></span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I also published the following poems:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">"Scrubbed of My Own History." <i>English Journal</i>. <o:p></o:p></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">(2023).</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">"Happy." In Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (Eds.), <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/What-Friend-Sylvia-Vardell/dp/193705716X" target="_blank">What Is a Friend?</a> </i></span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-indent: -0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">(2022).</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Lastly, I collaborated with singer-songwriter and educator Jordan McEwen on a DocuPoetry research-art project called <i>The Story of Boxing in WTX</i> where we interviewed a few folks in the business and took photos, marrying the visual with the text to create some riveting visual poems. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">All in all, a busy and productive couple of years. And now, with more time to dedicate to the old blog.</span></span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p>René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-28894051373972980672022-01-04T10:13:00.087-08:002022-01-04T23:03:39.542-08:00All This While<p> In all this while I've not posted (2019), I've gotten a lot done: for one, I've published a bit: some fiction, some academic material, a few blogs. I've continued to teach at Texas Tech University in the College of Education (I've put in my dossier for promotion to professor; will hear news at the end of February/beginning of March); I've co-edited an academic book that should be out this coming year (working with my colleagues at TTU); I've edited a YA anthology of poetry on body image called <i>I SING : THE BODY</i> (FlowerSong Press); and I've completed and submitted the sixth installment of the bilingual Mickey Rangel, Boy Detective series, tentatively titled <i>A CASE IS JUST A CASE</i>. I've also completed a manuscript called <i>EVENTUALLY, INEVITABLY: MY WRITING LIFE IN VERSE, A MEMOIR</i> that is out for consideration. I also laid some flooring throughout the house. Ain't that something! I'm sure I've left out a few items.</p><p>I've also gotten sick with COVID-19. It was a bad 10 days, and months later I still get winded, though that might be because I'm old and out of shape. It was the strangest time. I was good for the first part of the quarantine, up and about, though I knew not to do too much because a man I knew who'd been sick felt a bit better and decided to go out to work in his garden; he wasn't better, really. The stress took a toll and unfortunately, he ended up in the hospital, where he died. So I took it easy, even when I felt okay. Once it hit, though: boy oh boy! It was bad with my sense of smell gone, though I could still taste. Body aches like nobody's business. But staying in bed hurt, too, so I'd sit up some during the day, and I drank a lot of cranberry juice mixed with water. In that time, a friend from church died from it. So you can imagine the panic in the middle of the night, praying hard to just take my next breath, and my next, and my next. </p><p>Anyhow, I'm back. and I'll keep posting some. About reading, writing, poetry, images and the like. I remember enjoying this blogging when I first started, and I did a lot of it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoEy20mDbkUDvc0YjXM4N5nylzUyB-zZYLT6DvrlrF55Ja64FfkzMoZ4zIUAfU3kD6k1Cm-pozndHnjO-c1mYOqzBKokohagT3cbMkAjp0eAOgHgahwpU_NYtK-FqkyNHSbLFgN6yypQB3Ix5bLe86ZmN5941paswC8epP1XDdlR_3yg9nFf2BVgY-=s276" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjoEy20mDbkUDvc0YjXM4N5nylzUyB-zZYLT6DvrlrF55Ja64FfkzMoZ4zIUAfU3kD6k1Cm-pozndHnjO-c1mYOqzBKokohagT3cbMkAjp0eAOgHgahwpU_NYtK-FqkyNHSbLFgN6yypQB3Ix5bLe86ZmN5941paswC8epP1XDdlR_3yg9nFf2BVgY-" width="183" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-33222141776440130532019-05-24T08:14:00.004-07:002019-05-24T08:14:49.774-07:00It's Been A WhileMore later...René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-36381613500632014072017-01-05T16:26:00.001-08:002017-01-05T16:26:27.923-08:00On Cultural Appropriation<br />
Recently on Facebook, I was criticized for not knowing what cultural appropriation is. A friend had posted a side-by-side shot of Princess Leia and a Mexican soldadera, showing how Leia's two side buns had been inspired by the woman revolutionary, confirmed by Lucas years prior. A fellow commenter called it cultural appropriation, and I disagreed. Her response: you clearly don't know what cultural appropriation is. But I do. And Leia wearing the side buns which were inspired by the soldadera is not an example of it. One honors, the other exploits. It's that clear. And for this person to call it appropriation means that she would claim to know Lucas' intent, which is ludicrous because she can't know the heart of a person.<div>
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So, what's the test? How does one know it is exploitation versus a simple use of, an inspiration from, an attempt to honor, right or wrong?<div>
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I think it's easy: does the use of a hairstyle (that I've actually had a hard time finding more examples of) come across as Lucas "knowing" or "getting" what it is to be a soldadera? In other words, does he use the image/icon in such a way that it comes across as him "being" on the inside or from the inside? Or does he use it simply as an image influenced by? Does he speak about its use as expert despite being from the outside, a know-it-all? Or does he say, instead, "I was going through some images of women warriors and I came across this one of a Mexican woman revolutionary and I thought, 'Cool, just what I was looking for'"?</div>
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Now, there is also this other thing: the misuse or misrepresentation of a culture, which is not appropriation but another sort of mistake that an author or illustrator will make. And again, we have to deal with his/her intent. Usually, the intent is innocent: he/she wants to be more representative, more diverse in the work. It's a two-edged sword. Do it, do it wrong, pay for it. Don't do it, the writer is bigoted. These these are not evil people we're dealing with in the publishing industry, though. They just don't know, or don't realize that they don't know. I'm among them. I've gotten called at least once, before publication, I made the correction, and it didn't harm the integrity of the story nor of my work as a writer (thanks, David Bowles for speaking up that one time). To do it well, I need to check with others in the know if I'm going to write a Black character into my story, or a First Nations character. Though I do believe that there are universal elements to our stories--that we all know great happiness and great sadness, that we all experience love and hate, that we feel anger and joy--I have discovered that we don't all express them or experience them in the same ways. And sometimes, a culture's expression or experience is distinct, and I need to honor it. For me to write that into one of my stories without really understanding it means, at best, I'm doing it superficially, at worst, I'm doing it wrong, and the one who suffers is the younger and more impressionable reader from within that culture; the other from without, too, suffers.</div>
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I do think we have allowed ourselves to become too soft, in need of safe spaces too quickly over the years. We are too sensitive about almost everything. That a writer elects not to make reference to another's culture because we're likely to get called on it is censorship of the worst kind: self-censorship. I choose not to write something because I'm scared that there will be pushback is a bad thing. I'm not saying we need to lighten up, let things go, let writers and illustrators off the hook. But we cannot take offense at everything like this woman on Facebook did with this image of Leia and the soldadera or with me disagreeing with her. This diminishes the more serious and legitimate work that other folks are doing.</div>
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One last thing: these books are out there: those that abuse or exploit a culture, and those that misrepresent. I would recommend to fellow teachers to, on occasion, use them with our children in the classroom as opposed to avoid them. Instead of shielding our children at every turn, we need to teach them how to distinguish between a book that gets it right and one that fails miserably. We need to teach them how to be strong that way, to look at a text critically and how to be critical of it. We need to teach them to stand up for and against these major errors in curriculum. More importantly, we'd be teaching them to become independent and strong. To themselves know when and how to do so. That's what I want for my own kids. And for others' too.</div>
René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-74494262855348656242017-01-05T15:14:00.001-08:002017-01-05T16:37:05.740-08:00Michael READS! <span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">I've met Michael a few times over the years, from when he was a little kid to more recently at the book festival his mom put together in south Texas (which is an awesome event and as long as I'm welcome, and I can travel down, I am SO there!). This time was special meeting him again: he's older, he loves books (he better: his mom's one of the best librarians and reader ever!), and he doesn't shy away from talking books, or talking to adults about books (which will be a gift t</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">o his ELAR teachers and lit professors), so, when I first arrived in Edinburg late evening (9ish?) gathered in the area where they serve breakfast was a bunch of writers and librarians, and among the bunch was Michael, who'd set himself apart somewhat, off to a corner, reading none other than The Jumping Tree. He was close to finishing when I said hello to him. "Tell me what you think when you're done," I might have added. I've met plenty of readers over the years who are excited to talk to a writer of a book they've read, and that's cool. Their teachers always say it's a great thing for them to meet the author. I wonder, do these readers know how awesome it is to meet our readers! And, do they know we're just as anxious to meet them as they us? And cooler yet when we get some good one-on-one time. And with readers (I mean, the engaged ones, right, who don't need to be coerced into the act of reading but do it for the goosebumps, for the edge-of-their-seats feeling, for the laughter, the near-tears, etc.), man, what a moment for a writer because we get to really and truly discuss our work and their work in reading. Michael, you call my book one of your faves for the year. You're one of my favorite readers in the world over a lifetime!</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "san francisco" , , "blinkmacsystemfont" , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Read Michael's reviews at <a href="http://margiesmustreads.com/2017/01/michaels-top-5-books-2016/#comment-11074">http://margiesmustreads.com/2017/01/michaels-top-5-books-2016/#comment-11074</a>.</span>René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-77878330443361210452016-08-22T08:15:00.003-07:002016-08-22T08:20:26.400-07:00Mystery Bigger than Big Review on Beverly Slapin's blog!<a href="http://decoloresreviews.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-mystery-bigger-than-big-mickey-rangel.html" target="_blank">Beverly Slapin reviews Mystery Bigger than Big (MBTB) on her blog.</a>René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-34563161030408148832016-08-22T08:15:00.001-07:002016-08-22T08:15:16.580-07:00Radio Interview with Eric Ladau on A MYSTERY BIGGER THAN BIG/UN MISTERIO MAS GRANDE QUE GRANDISIMO.Take a listen to my interview with Houston Public Media's Eric Ladau on the subject of Unaccompanied Minor Children and my latest book, the 4th installment of my bilingual Mickey Rangel mystery series, <i>A Mystery Bigger than Big</i>.<br />
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<a href="https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/arts-culture/2016/08/18/164426/arte-publico-press-august-2016-author-of-the-month-dr-rene-saldana-jr/" target="_blank">Click here to listen to the Interview.</a>René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-18343747117420207092015-05-25T18:56:00.000-07:002015-05-25T19:00:17.342-07:00Goalie work: Mikah wearing the mitts.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A pivotal game for LBK FC 06, the boys are tied and have to go to Penalty Kicks (PKs). Mikah's at the goal and for all intents and purposes, he does a great job. He stopped all but two shots. There is a question about one of the shots our boys took: does it go in or does it not?</div>
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The ref didn't score it as a goal, and so the boys lost this game that would've given them a shot at the championship; they are actually the team that scored the most goals, and except for this one PK or the missed call, they would've played for 1st on Monday AM. They came in a respectable 3rd place, though. Congrats to them and Coach Adams!</div>
<br />René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-20119728768044428472014-09-12T13:33:00.001-07:002014-09-12T13:33:37.418-07:00Sonia Nieto and Nikki Grimes Read My Latin@s In Kid Lit Post! And More!So yeah, I got news from the folks over at Latin@s in Kid Lit that after two days my blog post "Forgive Me My Bluntness" had got 1,400 views (of which, I must admit, a bunch belong to me, but still).<br />
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Among all the 1,400 were a few notables: noted multiculturalist Sonia Nieto emailed me her response, and then I got a Tweet from Cindy Rodriguez in which she linked to Nikki Grimes' personal blog in which she posted the following: <a href="http://www.nikkigrimes.com/blog/?p=314">Grimes' "Mr. Cellophane," an essay on diversity in kids lit.</a><br />
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Do I have to say, I'm thrown for a loop, and am super honored that they read my piece, but how cool that another several hundred read it too.René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-48849657790890880592014-09-08T13:32:00.000-07:002014-09-12T13:42:31.479-07:00Latin@s in Kid Lit Essay: On Diversity in Books for Children and the YAFollow this link for my essay <a href="http://latinosinkidlit.com/2014/09/08/forgive-me-my-bluntness-im-a-writer-of-color-and-im-right-here-in-front-of-you-im-the-one-sitting-alone-at-the-table/">"Forgive Me My Bluntness: I'm a Writer of Color and I'm Right Here In Front of You: I'm the One Sitting Alone at the Table"</a>.René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-8963557762385213052014-07-27T15:03:00.001-07:002014-07-27T15:03:43.008-07:00Don Tate: Book People's "Modern First Library" selectionYeah! Elated that Don Tate, a master illustrator and author, selected <i>Dale, dale, dale</i> for his list of diverse books to read: <a href="http://www.bookpeople.com/don-tate-modern-first-library-recommendations">http://www.bookpeople.com/don-tate-modern-first-library-recommendations</a>. I've got to get reading.<br />
<br />René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-89913371787824397502014-07-27T14:58:00.003-07:002014-07-27T14:58:40.641-07:00SLJ: Every Child Ready to Read by Tim WadhamHey, so Tim Wadham in his most recent piece for the School Library Journal added my and Carolyn's book to his bilingual/song titles in speaking up for Every Child Ready to Read program: <a href="http://www.slj.com/2014/07/collection-development/libro-por-libro/storytime-fiesta-incorporating-every-child-ready-to-read-in-bilingual-programs/">http://www.slj.com/2014/07/collection-development/libro-por-libro/storytime-fiesta-incorporating-every-child-ready-to-read-in-bilingual-programs/</a>.René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-81952640073141181612014-04-21T13:59:00.002-07:002014-04-21T13:59:40.251-07:00My Piece on "Reflections" for Latinas 4 Latino LiteratureFor a second year in a row, I've had the honor and the pleasure to write a short essay for Latinas 4 Latino Literature. When Monica Olivera (follow her at MommyMaestra.com, Latinas4LatinLit.org, and on twitter @LatinMami and @Latinas4LatLit) calls, I answer. This year she invited me to submit a piece on "Reflections." Click on the link, to read <a href="http://techfoodlife.com/2014/04/14/l4ll-dia-blog-hop-author-rene-saldana/">My "Reflections" essay on Eva Smith's blog, TechFoodLife.com.</a>René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-79932441662577996232014-03-17T15:18:00.001-07:002014-03-17T15:18:05.567-07:001st Review of Dale, dale, dale: una fiesta de numeros/Hit It, Hit It, Hit It: A Fiesta of NumbersFollow this link to read the first review of my upcoming picture book, <i>Dale, dale, dale</i>: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rene-saldana-jr/dale-dale-dale-hit-it-hit-it-hit-it/. It is a story of a boy's 12th birthday and all the day's goings-on. It is a bilingual format. And check it out, I got to do both the Spanish and the English.<br />
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I don't yet have the official cover, and so I'm not posting an image of it yet. But I will.<br />
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I'm excited to publish this alongside picture book writer and illustrator Carolyn Dee Flores (<i>Canta, Rana, Canta</i>--Piñata Books).<br />
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The book is out May 31st.René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-70543979609890066412014-01-09T07:20:00.004-08:002014-01-09T07:22:20.232-08:00Freire and WritingIn the "First Letter" in his short book <i>Teachers as Cultural Workers</i>, Paulo Freire states, "Nobody can write who never writes."<br />
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I got my start with open mics at a place called The High Dive in McAllen, TX, run by a huge supporter of the arts and who put his money where his mouth is, Noe Hinojosa. Noe used to help the regional visual artists by displaying their work on every wall of his coffee joint (floor to ceiling, literally), making it available for purchase. He also held weekly readings, normally open mics on a Friday night. This is where I heard Jan Seale (former Texas poet Laureate) and Carmen Tafolla (San Antonio's poet laureate). He also used to sell a bottomless cup of pretty good coffee. Which I always took advantage of.<br />
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I recall a few of the regulars who shared their work with the audiences. One of them came and read the same poems every Friday, accompanied by the same set ups for each of the pieces. This guy was a great performer, and self-depricating, too, which made it easier to like his on-stage persona.<br />
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I recall that at some point in our friendship he asked me to look over his poetry, to offer critique, which I was happy to do. After all, this is one of the ways writers get better at the craft: we read one another's work, tell one another what's working and what's not, let the critique stew in our heads for a while, then get to my favorite part of writing--the revision, or the re-envisioning of a piece of writing. Sometimes a dramatic experience. Other times traumatic. On a few occasions, both.<br />
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So despite knowing his work intimately from hearing it time and time again at the readings, I read the work off the page and came up with some suggestions. I forget what I offered him in terms of advice, but one thing I do remember suggesting that he read the work of other poets, those writing in a similar vein (and I remember it solely based on his response, which I wasn't expecting).<br />
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This was his answer (and I paraphrase): <i>I'd rather not read the work of others. I don't want to be influenced by their work</i>.<br />
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I come from a wholly different school of writing, I guess, but this struck me as the response of a guy who wasn't serious about the craft. I feel very strongly that in order for my craft to improve I've got to read and read and read. Find out from what's been and what's being published what I can be doing with my poems and stories and essays. It's a worthwhile endeavor, and humbling. To take these folks on as mentors, as teachers, as primers. I mean, I'm a moron when it comes to writing--I know it about myself. I don't know it all. I get it. And I also get that for me to keep learning about my craft I've got to study it, and sometimes this learning--strike that--often, this learning takes the form of reading the work of others. I am not so advanced (even with 7-8 titles under my belt) that I cannot find tons of lessons in the books that I read. Whatever those lessons are.<br />
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Anyhow, back to Freire: n<i>obody can write who doesn't write</i>: yes, most certainly, he's correct. And if part of learning to write is reading (and it is), then I would suggest that <i>nobody can write who doesn't read</i>.René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-14918625738385879132014-01-01T12:40:00.002-08:002014-01-01T12:43:29.814-08:00Creative Writing in the Classroom: Well Worth the Work, Part III, the last<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">4. For the duration, teach creative writing and nothing else. Would-be
writers need to know how to live and breathe like authors, down to the language
authors use when talking the business of writing. Apprentice writers will then
be able to talk about their own and others’ writing as fellow-journeymen. Not
just the names of things, but the language of hope and desire, of rejection,
and of thick skin. When my father-in-law, a friend, and I began work on
updating the exterior walls on the farmhouse in Sweden, we fell into a daily
routine, starting with unloading the tools required for the job. It was a quiet
time, a time for us to focus on the work to come, to stretch out extension
cords, to tote planks of wood from stacks behind the farmhouse to where we’d use
them. When we got going, there was talk about construction sites my father-in-law
had worked a while ago, a quick lesson on the difference between something
being flush or plumb, and the chatter that goes with hammering and sawing. It
was my father-in-law usually who set up the day’s schedule and doled out the
instructions, checking on my and my friend’s work. (At one point, he took his
carpenter’s pencil and where I’d missed the nail and left an indention on the
wood he scribbled the date, drew an arrow pointing to it, and wrote my name
next to it, a sort of constructive criticism in the guise of poking fun.)
There’s also the banging and buzzing sounds that were part of the language. I
didn’t magically transform into master carpenter based on this one experience
swinging a hammer, but I was exposed to the craft long enough to decide it is
not a language I want to speak for the rest of my life. More to the point:
without this extended, purposeful, and guided experience I would not have had
the choice either way. I would not have known to know there was such a choice
for me to be responsible for making. Back in high school, when I was asked to
write those two short stories, we didn’t have this protracted time. We simply
wrote another kind of essay or paper for its own sake, and a grade. Neither of
which caused me to think of myself even remotely as the person behind the
story. Writing a task to perform, a chore to complete.<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">5. Young writers should read primer texts. These are not the mentor
texts mentioned above. Nor should they be confused with how-to manuals. These
are novels, stories, or poems about a craft, the author putting a skill on
display. In writing about a character performing a skill well or poorly, the master-craftsman
(the author, that is) is sharing with us his or her philosophy on writing. Read
about the care a baseball player takes when practicing his swing in Carl
Deuker’s <i>Heart of a Champion</i>, or the
obsessive free throw shooting by Sticky in Matt de la Peña’s <i>Ball Don’t Lie</i>. These writers aren’t
merely describing an action in a story. They are inviting us (usually subconsciously)
to view courtside their different approaches to crafting. Fiction writer
Dagoberto Gilb teaches about the craft of writing in “Al, In Phoenix” which is
about Al, a grease monkey, who serves as the writer’s master-craftsmen in the
story. In this piece found in the collection <i>The Magic of Blood</i>, when the narrator’s car breaks down, he has it
towed to Al’s station. Not one to be hurried by the impatient narrator who
wants an estimate on how long the job will take, Al insists, “Everything takes
time” (79). He is methodical, and he won’t let a job beat him. He cranks the
engine to listen for potential problems, makes a diagnosis, raises the car on
the lift, tears apart the drive shaft, tinkers, puts everything back together,
lowers the car, turns the ignition, listens, lifts, tinkers some more, until he
gets it right, at which point, long after closing up shop, Al “revs the engine,
shifts the gears several more times, then stops. He pops the hood. He checks
things. He checks the battery, puts in water, greases the clamps, then closes
the hood” (90). Doesn’t that read so much like an author’s daily strive? From
earliest draft of a poem or story clear through to the major revisions to minor
ones and on to the final edits? Isn’t this exactly what writing a story should
look like? The master craftsman isn’t done in one go, and when he thinks he’s
finished, he goes back to the draft and tinkers some more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">6. Get them writing, plain and simple. Writers write, says Delblanco. Don’t
ask students to waste words and time with exercises that do not go directly to
teaching them about the craft, though. You could give students various topics
to write on, a way to collect multiple ideas to choose from, but once they
select a subject for a poem or story, let them have at it, and in the process,
write, revise, revise some more, and revise even more. Teach the craft in the
context of actual writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">7. Keep them reading both mentor and primer texts. Then insist that they
talk about what they’re writing in terms of what they’re learning from the
mentor and primer texts. Have them identify point of view in a story, for
instance, and then discuss the possible reasons an author would have for
choosing first-person reporter/present tense rather than third-person limited/past
tense, and what the implications are to such a decision. Then have them do
likewise with their own writing. Make them explain or even justify why the one
perspective and not another is the best for this story. Why to use the
villanelle for this one poem rather than free-verse. Etc. They will talk like
writers because they are chest deep in it. It’s only natural.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">8. Have them workshop a piece. Each writer-in-training submits a work to
be analyzed by the whole. The group will offer up constructive criticism: what’s
working and what’s not, but just as importantly, the why behind their opinions.
Have them steer clear of offering up solutions during workshop, however.
They’re expected to merely point out weaknesses and then it’s the author’s
responsibility to do with this information what he will. While working on my
father-in-law’s farmhouse, we used nails to secure a board to the house, but we
used long screws to finish the work. On a 20 to 25 foot ladder and an electric
drill in hand, I would work the screw in at a ninety degree angle. Which was
fine if I wanted the house to last a short 100 years more. But if I wanted my
work to last longer, my father-in-law insisted, I should tilt the screw a few
degrees upwards so that the screw would bite more definitely into the wood.
Here was a fellow worker looking at a beginner’s, noticing where the work could
improve, suggesting so, and explaining the reason for making the change. He
never took over the drill, he just showed me a better and more effective way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">9. Teach them about the revision process. This is where the real writing
happens. We are not all first-draft-last-draft writers like Rylant (18). Carver
writes that he likes “to mess around with my stories. I’d rather tinker with a
story after writing it, and then tinker some more, changing this, changing
that, than have to write the story in the first place….Rewriting for me is not
a chore—it’s something I like to do” (182). He adds, “Maybe I revise because it
gradually takes me into the heart of what the story is <i>about</i>. I have to keep trying to see if I can find that out. It’s a
process more than a fixed position” (183). Novelist Ernest J. Gaines compares
this part of the process to carving on a block of wood. He whittles away at the
block, then shows it to a woman who serves as a sort of editor. After studying
his most recent work, “she would say yes, but not quite yet. And sometimes I
would get angry with her, and I would ask her what the hell she knew about it,”
but after some careful consideration, “I would go back and work again. I don’t
know the number of hours or days or weeks or even months that I would put into
one carving….” (42). All this hard work for one purpose: to tell the best story
a writer can. So students may thrive on revision like Carver, or detest it like
Gaines; one way or the other, it is at this stage where the craftsmen show their
mettle. Like Al the mechanic, writers will refuse to let the work beat them
down. A final note on revision: if it’s going to do the piece of writing any
good, revision should be dramatic and traumatic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">10. Be the editor. Once apprentices are convinced that this is a line of
work they want to pursue, no amount of criticism or rejection will deter them
from reaching the level of master-craftsman. After all, an editor’s job is to
help guide the writer and to help shape that unintelligible block of words into
something legible. Shying away from being critical does a disservice to writer
and work. If they are any good at it, editors will not rest either until they
and writers have the best product possible to share with their readership. A
great story becomes a shared labor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Perhaps if my junior high science or history teacher had known of my
early interest in archeology, she could have helped guide me in that direction,
allowed me to get a feel for the work of digging up old stuff. Perchance today
I would be working on an archeological site, dusty and sun-baked, brushing off a
skull dating back to the Stone Age. Likely I would not be thinking the work of
digging to be futile and tedious, but fulfilling and exciting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I wasn’t given the
chance to walk even a quarter-mile in an archeologist’s shoes, though. And so
I’ll never know what I would have thought of it really. All the same, I was
fortunate that early enough in college I was afforded the opportunity by friends
and teachers to take up the pen and put it to use, so that today I can
confidently and without hesitation call myself “writer.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">What of your students? Will they
get a cursory introduction to creative writing, thus missing their chance to conceive
of themselves as authors? Or will theirs be a true apprenticeship into what it
means to be a writer? Gaines offers this advice: “if you as teachers should
find him or her before I do, then </span><i style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">you</i><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">
pass on the tools. In the long run, he or she will not regret the favor” (44).</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-56049290024410788812013-12-26T20:53:00.000-08:002013-12-26T20:55:20.715-08:00Creative Writing in the Classroom: Well Worth the Work, Part II<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">For a few semesters I have taught a graduate level class called Creative
Writing for the Classroom Teacher. For those several weeks, I ask my students (a
few of them working teachers; some future educators) to consider that the teaching
of expository writing and creative writing call for different methodologies. Though
the purpose of both forms is to communicate a message to the reader, that which
is communicated is different. One’s aim is to tell it true factually, the
other’s is to tell it true. One relies on verifiable evidence, while the other
relies on authenticity. So it makes sense that that which the author sets out
to tell dictates how it’s told, therefore how it is written.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">So, I ask my students to learn to
write in at least “two forms of literary writing.” They write a short short
story and a collection of poetry for certain, and if time allows, the script
for a short graphic story. I inform them at the outset that ours is not a
creative writing class in the traditional sense where we’ll write and workshop
our pieces, nor will they be graded on the quality of their short fiction and
poems. Though I do expect high quality work, the focus is on pedagogy, that is,
how educators take the writing of poetry to their own students.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">The class objective is multi-faceted:</span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">for my students to experience the very writing that
they are expected to teach their own students; to provide them with adequate
training for them to more competently meet curricular standards; and to afford
them the platform to share their concerns about their feelings of inadequacies
as they pertain to the teaching of fiction or poetry writing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">I ask them to talk about
themselves as writers, to describe their early educational experiences with
creative writing, and to discuss how confident they feel about teaching fiction
or poetry writing to their own students today. Following is a sampling of their
responses: “I think that the lack of experiences has had an impact on how I do
not see myself as a poet or author”; “Basically, my experiences with writing
have been pretty weak and generally [include] only the academic writing,
formula writing and not real exciting. Stories were not really encouraged”; and
“When I think back to my school experience, my opportunities to write
creative[ly] in an educational setting were limited.” Those who claim to have
been exposed to creative writing wrongly identified journal writing as an
example of such. And because they themselves were not trained to teach creative
writing, they would either avoid teaching it or simply gloss over it. It is
easier to teach a lesson on a specific device (personification, for instance)
then have students compose a poem (a haiku is short and sweet thus doable) in
which they will include personification. If they do so successfully, they score
a high grade and we have met that particular standard. Much easier to do that
than to teach fiction or poetry as a craft, in and of itself, with its very own
tools that require a specific knowledge. In my own travels into classrooms as
writer, I’m sad to report that much of the creative writing that is going on
reflects my own students’ reactions above.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">Over those same several weeks, I
try to instill in my students’ minds the great influence they can be in
children’s and young people’s writing lives by simply holding open the door
leading to Van Gogh’s room, by making available to them the time to walk around
in the shoes of working authors, and by sharing with them the tools of the
trade.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">To that end, following is a list
of the suggestions I offer my students:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">1. Distinguish creative writing from all the other writing that students
have been doing all their educational careers. For students to begin to
conceive of themselves as writers, they must first realize the vastly and
categorically dissimilar purposes and approaches to writing essays versus
writing stories or poems. If “creative writing” is nothing more to them than filler
or another task set before them like all the others, they will never get what
it means to be a writer, a poet, a playwright and instead consider creative
writing nothing more than an instrument belonging solely in an academic setting.
Students will have missed out on the opportunity to think that perhaps they,
too, might want to contribute their version of the Body Electric that is our
great nation and the part that they’ve played in forming it. Instead, they will
complete the acrostic, diamante, or haiku, but will never have thought that they
might want to give this writing thing an honest go. Related: though the reading
of fiction and poetry plays a large role in one becoming a writer and growing
one’s craft, reading literature as such doesn’t help a reader conceive of
himself as writer, much less to become writer, and much less to improve his craft
(as an example, to have students read <i>The
Great Gatsby</i> to write an essay about the meaning of the green light at the
end of the pier is different than having them read the same book to discuss how
Fitzgerald handles telling about a younger James Gatz and Daisy when neither of
them is present in the scene to recount this history: major difference, then,
between reading a novel as literature and reading it to learn about the craft.
More on this below.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">2. Set apart some serious time for students so to more realistically experience
a writer’s life. A two- to six-week unit on creative writing would best serve
students and give teachers enough time to introduce them to the craft(s) and,
more importantly, to the idea that they have the permission to think of themselves
as writers-in-the-works. This is not to say that dedicating two to six weeks to
writing short fiction, or six entire weeks to composing poetry can replace actually
living the life, but an extended unit will do more than a mini-lesson on
onomatopoeia that culminates twenty minutes later in a heroic couplet which
utilizes words that replicate sounds. Creative writing involves more than
mimicking devices—it is a skill in need of developing. The adage holds true:
practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. But practice,
especially of the perfect variety, takes time. (Please don’t misunderstand: I’m
not advocating for perfection in writing; even the best writers of all time
(except for Rylant, apparently) work in drafts. I don't’ necessarily count
myself among them, but to help clarify with a personal story: even when my
books are published and I’ve worked with more than capable editors over the
years, I find myself crossing out what’s on the page, and revising. It’s never
perfect. It can always be better. What I am stressing, though, is that time,
and enough of it, is crucial to the task.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">3. Provide would-be writers with plenty of mentor texts. If you are
teaching fiction, then have handy much fiction as is available, examples of
what writers have done successfully or not, but that young writers can learn
from either way. I don’t mean how-to manuals that outline how a story’s arc
should unfold, where and when the conflict should begin and end, that to get to
know a character thoroughly a writer should fill out a character questionnaire,
a copy of which, as it happens, seems to always be included in one of the many
appendices. Reading must take a different form. Teach them to read a story not
for theme or use of symbolism (which writers don’t sit and think about before,
during, or after working on a project, so why should apprentice-writers read
likewise?) but to see how an author has consciously constructed it. Writers
think about how to best develop character, selecting just the right word, how a
sentence falls on the page. They think about how to slow down a scene (read how
Tobias Wolff in his short story “Bullet in the Brain” does exactly this
expertly) or speed it up (for wonderful examples of this read Elmore Leonard’s <i>Get Shorty</i> for his more than effective
use dialogue and action). When I’ve experienced pacing issues in my own writing
I’ve revisited either of these two works by these master-craftsmen, to study
again what exactly they’ve done in their storytelling to slow it down or speed it
up. This will take some doing because for umpteen years these students have
been taught formulaic writing, for the most part, and worse, formulaic reading.
They’ve learned how to read for the test: even my own sons who are at this
point in elementary school know about underlining “key” words and phrases,
circling names and dates, etc. This is exactly what we want to avoid: because
when my sons grow up they will think that in order for them to write an
effective story or a poem they must require a formula. (As a side note,
non-fiction or expository writing of any sort, if it’s any good, is not
formulaic. Side note two: dedicating this much time and energy to teaching
fiction and or poetry will likely not improve a child’s grades on
state-mandated exams, though the benefits will most certainly be greater for
the child than this school or that being able to decorate the fence surrounding
it with Styrofoam cups informing the world of passers-by that this school or
that one is recognized by the state for scoring what it deems good enough,
never mind how environmentally unfriendly those cups are. Side note three:
above I mentioned exposing would-be writers to poorly written mentor texts as
well: if they are bored reading it, why on earth would they want to imitate it?
If a poem is overly-melodramatic, let’s say, and weak as a result, take the
time to teach why they need to try hard as they will to avoid the same and then
teach them how to use melodrama well. If another poem uses too many adverbs
(and I argue that one is too many), jump on the opportunity to teach them to
show don’t tell, or, conversely, where telling does come in handy. We can never
throw away an opportunity. Ever.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">To Be Continued...</span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-68721126814399765052013-12-20T17:45:00.002-08:002013-12-20T17:45:50.016-08:00Radio Interview with Eric LadauHey, follow this link to hear what silliness I have to talk about; a bit scatterbrained of me, but it's always fun to talk with Eric, who does very close readings of the titles he's interviewing on. And check out his archives: what a list, what a resource for teachers: <a href="http://www.classical917.org/articles/1386612370-Arte-P%C3%BAblico-Author-of-the-Month-Ren%C3%A9-Salda%C3%B1a,-Jr..html">Interview with Eric Ladau.</a>René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-3987257888571389212013-12-17T19:23:00.001-08:002013-12-17T19:28:31.211-08:00Creative Writing in the Classroom: Well Worth the Work, Part I<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">A while back, my family took to watching archeology-related shows on
PBS, during which our then-five-and-a-half, Lukas, sat spellbound at all of the
bones, treasures, and assorted old stuff that was unearthed and put on display
for viewers; after which, without any prompting from his teacher-parents, he
stated rather matter-of-factly that “When I grow up I want to be an
archeologist.” You can imagine my joy at the news because this same thought
came to me, though much later in my life (I was in junior high school when I
decided this same line of work suited me). Nobody ever asked me then what I
wanted to be when I grew up, but if they had that’s what I would’ve answered.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">Back then, though, the last thing
on my mind that I would want to be was writer. In those days it didn’t occur to
me that someone would want to be an author. Why would anybody choose that as
their job? We all wrote essays and book reports in class, so we knew first-hand
the hassle writing was. But to do it as a job, like my father worked for a
paving company for upwards of 12 hours a day? The thought never crossed my
mind. Of course I knew there had to have been someone jamming words together into
sentences into paragraphs into chapters into books. I wasn’t dense. But the materials
we read in class were nothing more than texts we were assigned to plod through.
They were by Ray Bradbury, whoever in the universe he was; Guy de Maupussant,
whose name I had problems pronouncing and as for his masterpiece, “The
Necklace”—</span><i style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">quelle horreur</i><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"> for a young
middle grader; and O. Henry with his silly trick endings. But to me, a student,
they were nothing more than names on book covers. I read them because they were
required of me and I wanted the high grades. The authors were long dead, or, if
they were still living (which I had no way of knowing, really, and no desire to
find out), they were from faraway places like London or New York City, all
strange and exotic and inaccessible to a boy from deep South Texas. Nevertheless
I read them. They would help me become an archeologist. That is, until I
discovered the tedium of the dig lasting between several months to years, with
the likely possibility that I may not uncover anything of great significance. I’ve
got no memory of it, but I must have changed my tune quick because when I applied
for university a few short years later, I checked graphic design for my major,
not archeology or anything else connected to science or history. But that
didn’t fit me either. Nor did accounting, journalism, or publishing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Author, then, if it
entered my mind (which I’m positive it didn’t) was for others to take up as a
vocation. It was for the leisured, the monied, the educated. None of which I
was. In high school I <i>was</i> required to
write two fictional pieces, for which I received <i>A</i>s, but even so I didn’t entertain the notion of myself as would-be
writer. (On a side note, I’ve kept both stories, now hidden away in some
unmarked box in the deepest, darkest corner of our garage, buried there because
I realize now they are horrible and cheesy. As far as stories go,
embarrassingly so.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It wasn’t until I was
in my second year of college that I granted myself the permission to conceive
of myself a writer-in-training. Not a writer, mind you, but one merely in the
making. With years of training ahead of me still if I so chose this course. I
had no assurances of success, only of hard work and certain rejection. Even so,
I chose the path that would require of me much. Ultimately, argues author
Nicholas Delblanco, “the definition of a writer is, simply, ‘one who writes’”
(135). This is not to say that the simple act of my putting pen to paper
automatically earned me the right to call myself “writer.” Like I said before,
as early as high school I wrote, but I wasn’t a writer. To be able to call myself
a “writer” would take more than scribbling a story down in a notebook, pounding
my chest when I’d finished a draft, and pronouncing myself so. “What it comes
down to,” writes Delblanco, “both at the end and in the beginning is work….work
and work and work” (135). He likens the process of becoming a writer to a
medieval cadre: after apprenticing himself to a master-craftsman for some time,
the apprentice turns journeyman laborer, and eventually, having learned what he
can at this second level, he becomes master-craftsman himself (124).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Such a master is short
story writer Raymond Carver who says, “There has to be talent” (87). Cynthia
Rylant agrees: “…writers are born with the word in their blood and the plain
truth of it is not everybody can be a writer” (18). Nonetheless, a writer
writes. Those with talent, she proposes, belong in an altogether different
“room entirely,” Van Gogh’s room she calls it, where would-be authors are about
the work of writing: they “are talking about art, about thinking art and
creating art and being an artist every single day of one’s life” (19).
Delblanco’s argument that creative writing takes “work and work and work” and
Rylant’s notion that writing consists of “talking about art” and talking “about
thinking art and creating art” take time and dedication on the beginning
writer’s part, time that we educators in the classroom setting don’t seem to
have free chunks of.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">In Texas, where I live and teach,
our curriculum is governed in education by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
(TEKS). Throughout children’s academic careers, they are expected to write
creatively. As early as kindergarten, students are required to write “to tell a
story</span><u style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </u><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">and put the
sentences in chronological sequence” and will accomplish this by “dictate[ing]
or writ[ing] sentences” (The State of Texas, “110.11. English Language Arts and
Reading, Kindergarten,” 14.A). Not much changes between then and 12</span><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">th</span><span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"> grade. As per the TEKS for English IV, “Students write literary texts to
express their ideas and feelings about real or imagined people, events, and
ideas. Students are responsible for at least two forms of literary writing.
Students are expected to: (A) write an engaging story with a
well-developed conflict and resolution, a clear theme, complex and
non-stereotypical characters, a range of literary strategies (e.g., dialogue,
suspense), devices to enhance the plot, and sensory details that define the
mood or tone; (B) write a poem that reflects an awareness of poetic
conventions and traditions within different forms (e.g., sonnets, ballads, free
verse); and (C) write a script with an explicit or implicit theme,
using a variety of literary techniques” (The State of Texas, “Chapter 110.34”).
Nowhere in this document does it state that educators must dedicate a specific
amount of time to teach literary or creative writing, how to fit it into their
lesson plans, or that when they teach “literary writing” that they need to do
much more than to touch on genre and devices at a very superficial level.
Educators, in general, are not trained in teaching creative writing, and the
responsibility of ensuring that their students pass one state-mandated exam or
another is foisted on their shoulders, so who has time to meet this writing
standard other than to give it a passing nod?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">Admirable though it is that students
are challenged to write creatively, even minimally, Rylant says in essence that
a different kind of writing involves its very own approach (19). It requires a
mindset modification, from writing academically to writing creatively. It
entails a significant shift in writing gears. But students cannot go it alone,
nor can they do it with only a surface knowledge of the craft. The implication in
Rylant’s article is that teachers must accompany their students as they step
out of one room and into this other.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial; text-indent: 0.5in;">To Be Continued...</span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<!--EndFragment-->René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-55649783157923370852013-12-13T15:55:00.001-08:002013-12-17T18:47:28.952-08:00Writers of Color and Their CharactersRecently I've been reading a few things on the subject of writers of color and their characters (the hip hop teacher blog linked below in another post and a Twitter thread over at Lee & Low with author Tess Gerritsen, who says, interestingly and sadly, that Asian American protagonists don't sell (she'd been told this by an editor a while ago) here's the Tumblr on it: http://leeandlow.tumblr.com/post/69705514018/why-bestselling-author-tess-gerritsen-doesnt-write). So I thought I'd jot down some thoughts:<br />
<br />
During my own reading from my formative years--middle and high school, I mean--was like anyone else's pretty much: my fill of the Classics. But I read outside of class, as well. I wouldn't be a reader today, otherwise.<br />
<br />
(Give or take a couple, I bet I can put my list up against yours and they will match.)<br />
<br />
So I distinguish between reading for myself and class-sanctioned reading assignments. You get the picture.<br />
<br />
In middle school, I recall going to the library at Nellie Schunior Junior High and perusing the spines of books on the shelf--this during my own time, not class time, so before the first bell, during lunch, after school.<br />
<br />
I'd look at a title and if it struck me as interesting, even remotely, I'd pull it from the shelf and judge the book by its cover next. If it didn't catch me off guard, I'd slide it back in the empty slot, or if it did, I'd open it to page one and read the first sentence or two, and if those suckered me in, I'd hope that by the end of reading the first paragraph or two I'd want to keep reading. If not, I'd shove the book back onto the shelf in its place. Then repeat cycle.<br />
<br />
This is how I found a book that was a game-changer, though I didn't know this back then. I didn't even know to remember the book's title, nor its author. Years later (a very convoluted story, one I'd rather tell in person than on paper or blog because the keyboard doesn't have the type necessary for me to tell it right), so years later, remembering that one of the stories in it involved a character called Pedro Pistolas and another about a konk, and thank goodness for the internet and search engines in particular, I typed those clues in and got this: Piri Thomas and <i>Stories from El Barrio</i>. (I've since ordered it online and reread it and enjoyed it all over again.)<br />
<br />
Okay, here I'm taking a jump through grades 8, 9, 10 during which time I never went back to that book nor any other with Latino/a characters and Spanish words here and there, didn't know I could...<br />
<br />
...and now I'm in 11th grade. In Ms. Ida Garcia's ELA class. She let me read <i>The Count of Monte Cristo</i> instead of Salinger's <i>Catcher</i>. This is another of those major moments in a reading life: this was the first book in a long time, since elementary, as a matter of fact, that I had really gotten into. I loved it, I'm telling you. But this story is not so much about my reading life, though it seems like it is. It's actually about my writing life and my use of characters of color.<br />
<br />
One writing assignment Ms. Garcia had for us was a short story. You've got to understand, I was writing for a grade, not because I was a writer, not because I thought of myself as a writer. So when I think back on this assignment, I never think of it as the beginning of my writing career. I wrote a cheesy horror story and got an A on it. The thing of it is that my character was a Mexican American kid much like myself, in a setting much like the rancho where I grew up, who goes to a corner store that was the corner store in my little neighborhood in deep South Texas. I reread it today and think a couple of things: first, if a student handed this story in for a grade in one of my creative writing classes, to be nice, I'd score it a D (no offense to Ms. Garcia and her grading ways, she was just being awfully kind, I think); second, I'd have to say, for an attempt at horror, it's a pretty miserable attempt. Looking back, I don't know what it was that gave me permission to write about a Mexican American kid (because, like I've said, the only Latino kid I'd read in a book was Pedro/Piri, who wasn't Mexican American from deep South Texas but a PR from Spanish Harlem and so where I got the idea to write about what I knew is beyond me).<br />
<br />
Next year, my 12th, Ms. Garza challenged us to write another short story as part of her ELA class. Again, without knowing to this day where I got the idea, I wrote generic Hispanic characters: this one a remake of <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> (more like <i>Westside Story</i>, though I've never seen the musical, not on stage, not on the tv). This one set in NYC, where I'd never visited up until a few years ago for a conference, and worse, on a subway train and the stations associated with it. I had watched a movie called <i>The Warriors</i>, and so maybe I was taking from Shakespeare and popular culture (a movie shot back in the late 70s with Michael Beck in the lead role as gang member Swan). Again, somehow I knew to write about what I knew despite not really <i>knowing</i> any of it.<br />
<br />
Next, I went off to college in South Carolina, to a place called Bob Jones University where eventually I did begin to think of myself as writer, or writer in the making, anyway. Took creative writing classes, submitted works to journals and magazines, including <i>The New Yorker</i>, if I remember right. And during these years, I wrote almost exclusively white characters in what I guess were white settings: lakesides, high rises, etc. And maybe with one exception (but there is no hard copy proof of it) a story I titled "Highschool Daze," that was set back in La Joya where I went to school K-12. And I used Mexican American characters. But that was it. Otherwise, a very anglo vision of what "writer" did.<br />
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It was only after reading folks like James Baldwin late in undergraduate years, and Sandra Cisneros in graduate school (then Denise Chavez, Rudolfo Anaya, and a few others) that I figured that my story was worth telling, and telling it my way, which meant writing about Peñitas and La Joya, about Rudy down the street, and Joe and Andy at school, and Bell and Cindy and Ana, and teachers like Mr. Ojeda, Ms. Garcia, and Ms. Garza, and the other Ms. Garza, the assistant principal who we affectionately nicknamed La Tweety, who was a fantastic educator and advocate for students).<br />
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Point being: had I not read, mostly on my own, books in which my story was recounted, I wouldn't have become the writer I am today, a guy who writes what he knows, including characters who are brown-skinned, whose language is brown, whose ways are brown.<br />
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Imagine if we introduced would-be writers from the get-go to characters of color in the reading we choose for them in the classroom: imagine them reading themselves in these stories and poems; imagine, without giving it any thought, these same kids tell stories that include themselves as characters, as the heroes of their tales. <i>What a wonderful place it would be</i>...René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-2621200317693902302013-12-08T22:07:00.000-08:002013-12-08T22:07:41.842-08:00Book Review: Pick-Up Game: A Full Day of Full Court, edited by Marc Aronson and Charles R. Smith, Jr.Somerville MA: Candlewick Press, 2011.<br />
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In his "Afterword," Aronson writes that "Charles and I created this book as a way to get some of the feeling of pick-up [basket ball] on the page," and do they ever!<br />
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As an intro to every individual story, Smith throws-in with a poem, setting up the piece to come, defining the path the story will take, much like at throw-in, the play's foretold. In his contribution, "Mira Mira," poet Willie Perdomo tells about Caesar, a PR baller whose Tío Charlie teaches the youngster "one thing: the game is lost before the first whistle gets blown." If this is true, and it is, then the game's also been won; and if there's a winner and a loser even before the first throw-in, the game's already been played, it's part of history, part of the collective memory: within time and without. A very Zen way of looking at the game, and at storytelling. Which is a cool way of thinking about writing, and supposed writer's-blocks: if the story's been told even before pencil's set to paper, then simply wait the block out because sure enough the story'll come, or it won't, because it's not a story told that works as a story. Think of how many manuscripts, complete and incomplete writers have filed away never to see the light of day with them; the writer knowing in his heart of hearts, like Tío Charlie says, that all those words organized into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into chapters, chapters into novels boil down to nothing but words strung together into nothing. The writer's task then is to not let the next empty page smell the fear of the nothing-but-words-strung-together of the worthless piece of writing that's come before. The writer plugs away.<br />
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The writer plugs away like Waco does throughout the stories in this anthology: In YA giant Walter Dean Myers' "Cage Run," Waco, a white but whiter than white cat steps onto the court and essentially beats Boo down first game, leaving Boo to wonder if the game's worth pursuing: he walks out of the Cage, the famed court on West 4th Street in NYC, dejected, "thinking about Waco's remark that for some guys in Harlem, basketball was their whole life. And about him wanting a piece of that action." This moment serves as Boo's dark night of the soul. He has looked utter defeat in the face, has felt its cold breath on the back of his neck: will he ever play again? That's the same question a writer asks himself upon finishing up a book, success or no: do I have it in me to plow through the next one? Is writing for him his "whole life," will he chase after that "piece of the action"?<br />
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This book works as a metaphor: this wonderful collection does the trick that Aronson and Smith set out to do, and then some. The stories herein not only give readers the feel of the "pick-up game on the page," but beyond that, the feel that writing is that dare put out by the as-yet put to paper story or poem. It's that same taunt that cousin Billy throws out at Cochise in Joseph Bruchac "Head Game": "Dare ya. Betcha won't." And wouldn't you know it, Cochise does it, takes up the challenge because "You ever do something that someone else wants you to do, even though you know that they're pushing your buttons?" But if the game's already been played, if it's already been won and lost before anyone's stepped foot on the court, it's already been written, then is it really someone else pushing your buttons? No way, that's just part of the way the story of writing the story unfolds. A particular. A detail, seemingly minor, but not. The problem for the character? Maybe. Maybe not. But something big, something major.<br />
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Aranson closes with the following advice to writers who pick up this book: "I hope some of you try your own pick-up games--choose a place, a time, set the rules of the game, and start to tell stories--just the way you do on the court."<br />
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Other writers in the anthology are<br />
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Bruce Brooks, Sharon G. Flake, Robert Burleigh, Rita Williams-Garcia, Adam Rapp, and Robert Lipsyte.<br />
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Well worth the read.René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-51933502272248947542013-12-08T12:11:00.002-08:002013-12-08T12:12:53.741-08:00Some Deep Reading on Diversity in Literature: Or Lack Thereof"What an awesome read. To bolster what Monica Olivera in her NBC Latino piece [linked below] that [librarian] Jeanette Larson linked to a couple days ago on the lack of Latino titles in the NYT's children's books of the year list: what's missing in Monica's response (which is a great one, by the way) is the affect the omission of said titles has on would-be writers of color: our kids in the [Rio Grande Valley of South Texas], in particular (b/c the community make up is what it is [90+% Latino]), and in a place like West Texas where the Latino community does make up around 30% of the population (where we are so isolated (literally and figuratively) from everything). It's dire, brother. Dire. We need to do our part to change this, right."<br />
--my Facebook response to educator and publisher David Bowles).<br />
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<a href="http://nbclatino.com/2013/12/04/opinion-no-latino-childrens-literature-in-annual-book-list-again/">Monica Olivera's piece on the blatant omission of Latino/a Children's titles on Year-End Best-of Lists</a><br />
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<a href="http://mediadiversified.org/2013/12/07/you-cant-do-that-stories-have-to-be-about-white-people/">A UK Urban Take on Child Writers of Colour (who leave out colour in their writing, unless...)</a><br />
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And who's doing something about it? Small presses, mostly: Follow them online to build your lit collections that kids, especially, kids of color will benefit big time from:<br />
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<a href="http://publishing.valartout.org/">VAO Publishing</a><br />
<a href="http://artepublicopress.uh.edu/arte-publico-wp/">Arte Público Press/Piñata Books (under reconstruction)</a><br />
<a href="http://www.leeandlow.com/">Lee & Low Books</a><br />
<a href="http://www.cincopuntos.com/">Cinco Puntos Press</a><br />
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<br />René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-64486908749670929972013-12-06T20:46:00.003-08:002013-12-08T12:20:46.809-08:00Publishing Update!Quick update on the past year:<br />
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First, I was fortunate to co-edit a YA anthology with poet Erika Garza-Johnson of South Texas. <i>¡Juventud!: Growing Up on the Border</i>. Erika collected some of the best poetry I've read in a while, poems that will certainly appeal to the older middle school and high school readers. Poets include Guadalupe Garcia-McCall, José Antonio Rodríguez, Amalia Ortiz, Diane Gonzales Bertrand, Edward Vidaurre, among others. The fiction is pretty good, too, if I say so myself. Fiction writers include Jan Seale, David Rice, Myra Infante, David Bowles, and others. The publisher is VAO out of the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Find out about them here: http://publishing.valartout.org.<br />
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I also published a short story in <i>¡Arriba Baseball! A Collection of Latino/a Baseball Fiction</i>, another of VAO's anthologies edited by Robert Moreira. This one includes work by Daboberto Gilb, Norma E. Cantú, Christine Granados, and a few others. A very strong collection, especially for the baseball enthusiast. My piece is called "One Inning at a Time till Nine."<br />
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And, I published the third in my Mickey Rangel mystery series. In <i>The Mystery of the Mischievous Marker</i>, our young detective must prove that his arch-nemesis, Bucho, didn't do it. You read that right: Bucho claims not to have been the one to mark up the school's walls with graffiti. Mickey is torn because what if Bucho is innocent and he had a hand in proving him so? But our hero is a hero indeed. He will do what it takes to prove the truth.<br />
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And, would you believe it! I'm soon publishing my first picture book: <i>Dale, dale, dale: una fiesta de numeros/Hit It, Hit It, Hit It: a fiesta of numbers</i>: is due out from Piñata Books in the spring of 2014. The illustrations are done my Carolyn Dee Flores of San Antonio. Mine is her third book. An honor to work with her. More on this book soon.René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2269141227789567438.post-40454200126531801712012-09-13T13:17:00.003-07:002012-09-13T13:17:40.605-07:00Been a while......since I've blogged anything literary, and so here's something: my bilingual collection of Mexican American folktales has been published recently by Piñata Books; it's called Dancing with the Devil and Other Tales from Beyond, pictured here and to the left:<br />
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Included in the book are tales about la llorona (the wailing woman), la mano pachona (the severed hand), and the devil as a handsome teen at a middle school dance.</div>
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Also, there aren't specifics yet but Piñata Books has also bought a picture book manuscript and it's due out possibly as early as spring of 2013; it's a bilingual counting book that also doubles as a story about Mexican American birthday parties.</div>
René Saldaña, Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/08412465735757305285noreply@blogger.com1