April 5, 2012 Latino Writers Blas Falconer and Lorraine López at Library April 26

Latino writers Blas Falconer and Lorraine López, editors of the anthology “The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity,” will be featured in two events at the Library of Congress on Thursday, April 26.

At noon the authors will participate in a panel in the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. They will discuss their anthology and the contemporary state of Latino literature. Moderating the panel will be Francisco Aragón, director of Letras Latinas, the literary program for the Institute of Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

At 6:30 p.m. Falconer and López will read from their own works in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.

The events are sponsored by the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center, Hispanic Division and Center for the Book, with support from Letras Latinas and the University of Arizona Press.

Falconer is the author of one full-length volume of poetry, “A Question of Gravity and Light,” and a chapbook (small volume), “The Perfect Hour.” In addition to “The Other Latin@,” he has co-edited “Mentor and Muse: Essays from Poets to Poets.” His honors include the Maureen Egen Literary Award, the New Delta Review Eyster Prize for Poetry and the Barthelme Fellowship. Falconer is an associate professor of languages and literature at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.

López is the author of three novels, most recently “The Realm of Hungry Spirits,” and two collections of short fiction. Her awards include the Independent Publishers Book Award for Multicultural Fiction, the Latino Book Award for Short Stories and the inaugural Miguel Marmol Prize for Fiction. López is professor of English at Vanderbilt University.

The Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress fosters and enhances the public’s appreciation of literature. The center administers the endowed poetry chair (the U.S. Poet Laureate), and coordinates an annual literary season of poetry, fiction and drama readings, performances, lectures and symposia, sponsored by the Library’s Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund and the Huntington Fund. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/poetry/.

Since its creation by Congress in 1977 to "stimulate public interest in books and reading," the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress (www.Read.gov/cfb/) has become a major national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages, nationally and internationally. The center provides leadership for 52 affiliated state centers for the book (including the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and nonprofit reading-promotion partners and plays a key role in the Library’s annual National Book Festival. It also oversees the Library’s www.Read.gov website and administers the Library’s Young Readers Center.

The Hispanic Division, established in 1939, is the Library’s center for the study of the cultures and societies of the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, the Caribbean, and other areas with significant Spanish or Portuguese influence. For more information about the division’s resources and programs, visit www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/.