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Meet Las Musas (AWP Offsite Event)

  • De-Canon Library / ArtHaus Gallery at MilePost 5 8155 Northeast Oregon Street Portland, OR, 97213 United States (map)

Las Musas are a collective of twenty-two Latinx middle grade and young adult authors who've come together to support and amplify each other’s debut or sophomore novels. Bring the familia and join us as we celebrate our mission and read our work! 

FEATURED READERS

Ann Dávila Cardinal 

Ann is a novelist and Director of Recruitment for Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA). She has a B.A. in Latino Studies from Norwich University, an M.A. in sociology from UI&U and an MFA in Writing from VCFA. She also helped create VCFA’s winter Writing residency in Puerto Rico. Ann’s first novel, Sister Chicas was released from New American Library in 2006. Her next novel, a horror YA work titled Five Midnights, will be released by Tor Teen in June 2019. Her stories have appeared in several anthologies, including A Cup of Comfort for Mothers and Sons (2005) and Women Writing the Weird (2012) and she contributed to the Encyclopedia Latina: History, Culture, And Society in the United States edited by Ilan Stavans. Her essays have appeared in American ScholarVermont WomanAARP, and Latina Magazines. Ann lives in Vermont.

Michelle Ruiz Keil 

Michelle Ruiz Keil is a Latinx novelist and playwright with an eye for the enchanted and a way with animals. She teaches writing with a focus on fairytale, divination, and archetype and curates All Kinds of Fur: A Fairytale Reading Series and Salon in Portland, Oregon. She has been a fellow at the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and Lit Camp. Her published short fiction can be found in Cosmonauts Avenue and in the forthcoming anthology Color Outside The Lines. All of Us with Wings is her first novel. 

Yamile Saied Méndez  
Yamile (sha-MEE-lay) is a fútbol obsessed Argentine-American. She’s the mother of 5 kids and 2 adorable dogs. Yamile’s an inaugural Walter Dean Meyers Grant recipient, a graduate of Voices of our Nation (VONA) and the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Writing for Children program. She’s also the author of the Lee and Low’s New Visions Honor Award On These Magic Shores, the Utah Arts Council Honor THE REEL WISH, and the forthcoming picture book Where Are You From? (HarperCollins, 2019) and the middle grade novels BLIZZARD BESTIES (Scholastic, 12/26/18) and On These Magic Shores (Tu Books/Lee and Low 2020).  

Anna Meriano

Anna Meriano grew up in Houston with an older brother and a younger brother and a large but close-knit network of aunts, uncles, and cousins spreading across the state of Texas. She graduated from Rice University with a degree in English, and earned her MFA in creative writing with an emphasis in writing for children from the New School in New York. There she was lucky to meet CAKE Literary founders Dhonielle Clayton and Sona Charaipotra, who started her on the Love Sugar Magic journey.

She lives in Houston with her dog Cisco. She has taught creative writing and high school English and currently works as a tutor for students of all ages across Houston. In her free time she loves knitting, playing full-contact quidditch, and singing along to songs in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language.

Aida Salazar 

Aida Salazaris a writer, arts advocate and home-schooling mother whose writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. She is the author of the forthcoming novels in verse, THE MOON WITHIN (2/26/19) and LAND OF THE CRANES (Spring 2020) and the forthcoming bio picture book JOVITA WORE PANTS (Fall 2020). All published by Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic. Her story, BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON, was adapted into a ballet production by the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and is the first Xicana-themed ballet in history. She lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, CA.