Event Category: Public Lecture

Manuel Iris Book Launch at Mercantile Library in Cincinnati, OH

Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Time: 6 p.m., EST

Place: Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut Street #1100, Cincinnati, OH

Manuel Iris will celebrate the publication of The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters / Toda la tierra es un jardín de monstruos at his book launch party at the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati. He will read from this poetry collection and be joined in conversation with Cincinnati Poet Laureate, Dick Hague, and poet and professor Felicia Zamora. The Spanish and English poetry collection is the Winner of the Ambroggio Prize of the Academy of American Poets. Manuel Iris is a Mexican-born American poet who has served as poet laureate of Cincinnati, Ohio, writer-in-residence at the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, and writer-in-residence at Thomas More University.

The event is free and open to the public, and registration is required.

About the book:

This award-winning bilingual collection intertwines the lives of a Renaissance painter and a modern migrant worker, offering a fresh perspective on art and migration.

In this highly imaginative work, the lives of the northern Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516) and an imagined contemporary migrant worker named Juan Coyoc, later known as Juan Domínguez, run in parallel as they mirror each other across languages, time, and continents.

By comparing and at times intertwining these two poetic narratives, the book explores themes of art, migration, narco-violence, family, spirituality, and the idea that every human being represents all humanity at any moment in history. Both Hieronymus Bosch and Juan Domínguez become relatable and intimate figures, part of our own story.

Written in simple, sharp language, the book employs surprising imagery and a novel structure to blur the boundaries between reality and fiction, while examining the intricacies of the human condition—from the life of Saint Anthony to the violent acts of narcos across Central America and the U.S.-Mexico border. With formal sophistication and philosophical depth, this work enriches the tradition of poetry about both migration and art, contributing to the literary heritage of Mexico and the United States over the past several decades.

Ann Hedlund at Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, AZ

Date: Saturday, January 31, 2026

Time: 10 a.m., MST

Where: Amerind Foundation, 2100 N Amerind Road, Dragoon, AZ

Ann Lane Hedlund, author of Mac Schweitzer: A Southwest Maverick and Her Art, will give an illustrated talk at the Amerind Foundation. Her talk is titled: “Mac Schweitzer: Rediscovering a Southwest Artist and Her Legacy.” The event is part of Friends of Western Art-Amerind Exhibit Celebration. Gallery exhibit doors open at 9 a.m. for viewing; the featured artworks, exemplifying the power, beauty, need and gift of rain in the West, are from the private collections of FWA members and Amerind’s permanent collection. Hedlund is a cultural anthropologist who collaborates with visual artists, including contemporary Indigenous weavers. She is an internationally-recognized expert on historic and modern textiles from the American Southwest. From 1997 to 2013 she served as a curator at Arizona State Museum and professor at University of Arizona, Tucson, where she also directed the nonprofit Center for Tapestry Studies. Tickets for the event are free and can be reserved here.

About the book:

In Tucson during the 1950s, nearly everyone knew, or wanted to know, the southwestern artist Mac Schweitzer. Born Mary Alice Cox in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1921, she grew up a tomboy who adored horses, cowboys, and art. After training at the Cleveland School of Art and marrying, she adopted her maiden initials (M. A. C.) as her artistic name and settled in Tucson in 1946. With a circle of influential friends that included anthropologists, designer-craftsmen, and Native American artists, she joined Tucson’s “Early Moderns,” receiving exhibits, commissions, and awards for her artwork. When she died in 1962, Mac’s artistic legacy faded from public view, but her prize-winning works attest to a thriving career.

Author Ann Lane Hedlund draws from the artist’s letters, photo albums, and published reviews to tell the story of Mac’s creative and adventuresome life. Her watercolors, oil paintings, prints, and sculptures—a diverse body of work never before seen in public—range from naturalistic studies of Sonoran Desert animals to impressionistic landscapes to moody abstractions.

“A Love Letter to This Bridge Called My Back” Art Reception at U of A in Tucson

Date: Thursday, February 12, 2026

Time: 4-7 p.m., MST

Place: Joseph Gross Gallery, University of Arizona School of Art, 1031 N. Olive Road, Tucson, AZ

The University of Arizona School of Art celebrates A Love Letter to This Bridge Called My Back with an exhibition of artworks drawn from and created in response to the 2022 anthology. The exhibition runs from January 13 to February 20, 2026. A reception and a Q&A panel with the artists and curators will be held Thursday, February 12, 2026. The book will be available for purchase during the reception. In the nearby Lionel Rombach Gallery, there will be a selection of solo and group shows including undergraduate, graduate and cross-campus collaborators.

In 1981, Chicana feminist intellectuals Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa published what would become a touchstone work for generations of feminist women of color—the seminal This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. To celebrate and honor this important work, editors gloria j wilson, Joni Boyd Acuff, and Amelia M Kraehe offered new generations A Love Letter to This Bridge Called My Back.

About the book:

In A Love Letter, creators illuminate, question, and respond to current politics, progressive struggles, transformations, acts of resistance, and solidarity, while also offering readers a space for renewal and healing. The central theme of the original Bridge is honored, exposing the lived realities of women of color at the intersections of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality, advancing those early conversations on what it means to be Third World feminist conscious.

A Love Letter recognizes the challenges faced by women of color in a twenty-first-century world of climate and economic crises, increasing gun violence, and ever-changing social media constructs for women of color. It also retains the clarion call Bridge set in motion, as Moraga wrote: “A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives—our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longing—all fuse to create a politic born of necessity.”

Tim Z. Hernandez at Reedley College in Reedley, CA

Date: Thursday, April 16, 2026

Time: 7 p.m., PST

Where: McClarty Center for Fine & Performing Arts, 995 N Reed Ave, Reedley College, Reedley, CA

Tim Z. Hernandez, author of They Call You Back: A Lost History, A Search, A Memoir, will speak at Reedley College on April 16. The event is free and open to the public. They Call You Back is the featured book for the 2025-2026 1Book/1College program. In 2016, the Reedley College Literary Arts adopted the 1Book/1College program, hoping to create a college- and community-wide conversation around a single work in the belief that a shared experience leads to deeper and more meaningful engagement and connection.

Hernandez is an award-winning author, research scholar, and performer. His books include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and he is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Book Award.

About the book:

A haunting, an obsession, a calling: Tim Z. Hernandez has been searching for people his whole life. Now, in this highly anticipated memoir, he takes us along on an investigative odyssey through personal and collective history to uncover the surprising conjunctions that bind our stories together.

Hernandez’s mission to find the families of the twenty-eight Mexicans who were killed in the 1948 plane wreck at Los Gatos Canyon formed the basis for his acclaimed documentary novel All They Will Call You, which the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed “a stunning piece of investigative journalism,” and the New York Times hailed as “painstaking detective work by a writer who is the descendant of farmworkers.”

In this riveting new work, Hernandez continues his search for the plane crash victims while also turning the lens on himself and his ancestral past, revealing the tumultuous and deeply intimate experiences that have fueled his investigations—a lifelong journey haunted by memory, addiction, generational trauma, and the spirit world.

Danielle P. Williams at Not There Gallery in Los Angeles, CA

When: Sunday, January 25, 2026

Time: 2-3:30 p.m., PST

Place: Not There Gallery, 437 Ging Ling Way, Los Angeles, CA

Tickets: Free, RSVP here

Join poet Danielle P. Williams, author of Chamorrita Song, at the Palabras Literary Salon in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. On Sunday, January 25, at 2 p.m., at Not There Gallery, Williams will speak on the theme of “gospel.” The salon has a guest readers circle, a curated invited list of diverse BIPOC poets, writers, playwrights, and creators to read three minutes of writing to celebrate this salon’s theme. The guest readers circle includes award-winning poets and writers Jen Cheng, Jose Enrique Medina, and others. A light reception is provided. Williams is a Black and Chamorro poet, translator, essayist, and spoken-word artist from Columbia, South Carolina. This event is free and open to the public, but please RSVP.

About the book:

Rooted in oral tradition, Chamorrita Song pays homage to Black and Chamorro cultures, honoring the artistic expressions that these communities have created to reconcile lifetimes of imposed trauma. Bearing witness to these many narratives, Williams intertwines spoken word poetry and gospel music with Chamorro storytelling, weaving together the nuanced histories of queer, Black, and Indigenous existence and literature.

Here Williams reveals capacious contemporary forms that speak to the future as well as to the past and that further ground lineages in homelands, finding strength and beauty in collective pain and triumph. These poems transform and spread the messages of those long silenced. They act as song and prayer.

David Burckhalter at Tumamoc Hill in Tucson

Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Time: 6 p.m., MST

Where: Tumamoc Hill Boathouse, 1675 W Anklam Rd, Tucson

Documentary photographer David Burckhalter shares stunning images of Seri (Comcaac) baskets and the women who make them. His book, Baskets from the Seri Coast: Comcaac Weavers and Their Craft, traces the evolution of Seri basketry from a utilitarian craft to a celebrated art form. Burckhalter has spent five decades cultivating friendships and documenting Seri traditions, landscapes, and basketry in Sonora, Mexico. With detailed insights into the artistry, labor, and legends surrounding Seri baskets, Burckhalter’s images pay tribute to the resilience and creativity of Seri women, whose weaving continues to be passed on to future generations. He will be in conversation with Jennifer Jenkins, Director of The University of Arizona Southwest Center, and author of Celluloid Pueblo: Western Ways Films and the Invention of the Postwar Southwest.

This talk will be held at the boathouse, at the base of Tumamoc Hill. The event is presented by Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, The University of Arizona Press, and The Southwest Center, and is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase, and the author will be available for signing following the talk. Reserve your spot here.

About the book:

This stunning exploration of Seri (Comcaac) basket weaving reveals the resilience and creativity of the weavers as seen through the lens of documentary photographer David Burckhalter, who has spent five decades cultivating friendships and documenting Seri traditions, landscapes, and basketry in Sonora, Mexico.

Blending striking photography with reflections from years as a trader and observer of Seri culture, Burckhalter traces the evolution of Seri basketry from a utilitarian craft to a celebrated art form. The book examines how Seri weavers have navigated the influences of the craft economy, outside forces like anthropologists, and changing traditions, while preserving their unique oral history and spiritual connections. With detailed insights into the artistry, labor, and legends surrounding Seri baskets, this work is a tribute to the resilience and creativity of Seri women, whose weaving continues to be passed on to future generations.

Arizona Author Series Presents Carolyn Niethammer

When: Thursday, May 11, 1 p.m.

Where: On Zoom

Carolyn Niethammer will present a talk about her book A Desert Feast: Celebrating Tucson’s Culinary Heritage, as part of the State of Arizona Research Library’s 2023 Arizona Author Series. Attendees are encouraged to register to receive the link to the presentation (scroll to bottom of the page). After the talk, there will be time for questions from the audience.

Tucson cuisine combines the influences and foodways of Indigenous, Mexican, mission-era Mediterranean, and ranch-style cowboy traditions into something wholly unique to the desert. It is no wonder, then, that Tucson became American’s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy. In A Desert Feast, Carolyn Niethammer honors this history and shows how waves of immigrants, travelers, and settlers have shaped this confluence of flavors and techniques to create food that smells and tastes unlike anything else. In this book, she interviews farmers, chefs, families, and entrepreneurs who are dedicated to preserving and expanding Tucson cuisine.

“Gathering Together We Decide” Book Launch at UTRGV in Edinburg, Texas

Date: Monday, December 8, 2025

Time: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., CST

Place: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Ballroom, 1201 W University Dr, Edinburg, TX

Celebrate the publication of Gathering Together, We Decide: Archives of Dispossession, Resistance, and Memory in Ndé Homelands edited by Margo Tamez, Cynthia Bejarano, and Jeffrey P. Shepherd. The book launch event at the UTRGV Ballroom includes the screening of the domentary El Muro, a panel of speakers, book giveaways, and book signings. El Muro documents the struggle of Dr. Eloisa G. Tamez against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that implemented eminent domain to seize a portion of her own Lipan Apache ancestral land in El Calaboz Rancheria, Texas. Margo Tamez (Ndé) is an associate professor of Indigenous studies in the Community, Culture, and Global Studies Department, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and affiliated in the MFA Creative Writing (Poetry) Program, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, at the University of British Columbia in the unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan People. Cynthia Bejarano is a regents professor and College of Arts and Sciences Stan Fulton Endowed Chair at New Mexico State University. Jeffrey P. Shepherd is a professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Event schedule:

Doors open at 10:45 a.m.
Documentary El Muro 11 a.m.
Panel Speakers 12 p.m.
Book Giveaways & Signings 1:45 p.m.

The celebration is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by Emilio Institute for Indigenous Responsibility, Rights & Research,
UTRGV Department of Criminal Justice and the University of Arizona Press.

About the book:

In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security began condemnation proceedings on the property of Dr. Eloisa Tamez, a Lipan Apache (Ndé) professor, veteran, and title holder to land in South Texas deeded to her ancestors under the colonial occupation and rule of King Charles III of Spain in 1761, during a time when Indigenous lands were largely taken and exploited by Spanish colonizers. Crown grants of lands to Indigenous peoples afforded them the opportunity to reclaim Indigenous title and control. The federal government wanted Tamez’s land to build a portion of the “border wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border. She refused. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security sued her, but she countersued based on Aboriginal land rights, Indigenous inherent rights, the land grant from Spain, and human rights. This standoff continued for years, until the U.S. government forced Tamez to forfeit land for the wall.

In response, Dr. Eloisa Tamez and her daughter, Dr. Margo Tamez, organized a gathering of Lipan tribal members, activists, lawyers, and allies to meet in El Calaboz, South Texas. This gathering was a response to the appropriation of the Tamez family land, but it also provided an international platform to dispute the militarization of Indigenous territory throughout the U.S.-Mexico bordered lands. The gathering and years of ensuing resistance and activism produced an archive of scholarly analyses, testimonios, artwork, legal briefs, poetry, and other cultural productions.

Ana Patricia Rodríguez at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.

Date: Saturday, February 7, 2026

Time: 6 p.m., EST

Where: Politics and Prose at Union Market, 1324 4th Street NE, Washington, D.C.

Salvadorans make up thirty-two percent of the Washington D.C.’s Hispanic population, and one Salvadoran writer described the American Capital City as “another city in El Salvador.” Ana Patricia Rodríguez will read from her new book, Avocado Dreams: Remaking Salvadoran Life and Art in the Washington, D.C. Metro Area at Politics and Prose at Union Market on February 7, 2026. Rodríguez is an associate professor of U.S. Latina/o and Central American literatures at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is past president of the Latina/o Studies Association (2017–2019). This book launch celebration is free and open to the public.

About the book:

For more than four generations, Salvadorans have made themselves at home in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and have transformed the region, contributing their labor, ingenuity, and culture to the making of a thriving but highly neglected and overlooked community.

In Avocado Dreams, Ana Patricia Rodríguez draws from her own positionality as a Salvadoran transplant to examine the construction of the unique Salvadoran cultural imaginary made in the greater D.C. area. Through a careful reading of the creative works of local writers, performers, artists, and artivists, Rodríguez demonstrates how the people have remade themselves in relation to the cultural, ethnoracial, and sociolinguistic diversity of the area. She discusses how Salvadoran people have developed unique, intergenerational Salvadoreñidades, manifested in particular speech and symbolic acts, ethnoracial embodiments, and local identity formations in relation to the diverse communities, most notably Black Washingtonians, who co-inhabit the region.

Ann Hedlund in Silver City, NM

Date: Sunday, February 8, 2026

Time: 3-4:30 p.m., MDT

Where: Flash Gallery, Light Art Space, 209 West Broadway, Silver City, NM

Ann Lane Hedlund, author of Mac Schweitzer: A Southwest Maverick and Her Art, will give an illustrated talk about her book, followed by book signing at Flash Gallery in Silver City. Flash Gallery at Light Art Space will host a showing of lithographs by Mac Schweitzer and photographs by Larry Ollivier from February 5 to 28, 2026. The exhibit opens in time for a first Friday ArtWalk on February 5, 5-7 p.m.

About the book:

The University of Arizona Press