LART Promotes Undiscovered Latino Writers

Ivette Manners -- Críticas, 10/1/2003

The expanded second Latino Artists Round Table's (LART) International Congress, held in New York, promises to create even more exposure for more Latino, Latin American, and Spanish writers than did last year's event. The organizers of "Múltiples realidades, múltiples ficciones: Desde el hipertexto hasta el realismo sucio" ("Multiple Realities, Multiple Narratives: From Hyper-Text to Stark Reality") have great expectations. Two more days and several panel discussions have been added. "Last year, we had more than 60 Hispanic writers and 300 attendees," says Angel Lozada, author and executive member of LART's board of directors. "This year we hope to increase those numbers."

The four-day congress is open to the public and will draw students, professors, literary critics, publishers, editors, and others involved with and interested in the Latino literary world. Invited artists include poets, novelists, television and screenwriters, and filmmakers from the United States, the Caribbean, Spain, and Latin America. "We've invited first-rate Latino writers. All of the writers are invited for a reason," says Lozada, who is working on the literary portion of this multimedia conference.

"There is a lot of quality literary work out there, but it is not distributed well here in the United States," says Sonia Rivera-Valdés, author and president of LART. Some of the featured writers who will be speaking and participating in the conference are Nancy Morejón (Cuba), Miguel Barnet (Cuba), Mario Bellatín (Mexico-Peru), Paquita Suárez Coalla (Spain/U.S.), Mario Mendoza (Colombia), Jacqueline Herranz Brooks (Cuba/ U.S.), and Lourdes Vázquez (Puerto Rico/U.S.).

The conference is determined to arm these talented but underrepresented writers with the tools they need to compete in the industry. They will have the opportunity to network and present their work. The roster of discussions includes workshops on pitching a book proposal, submitting a manuscript, and panels on literature as social change, American editors and Spanish-language books, and teaching literature in the classrooms.

Lozada and Rivera-Valdés have partnered with major sponsors. Barnes & Noble will provide a mini bookstore during the congress that will sell the work of attending writers. The New York daily El Diario la Prensa will run a supplement about the congress in its Sunday edition preceding the conference, and Spirit Airlines and Marazul will fly writers in from Puerto Rico and Cuba. El Instituto de México, the Hispanic AIDS Forum, and the Puerto Rican Federal Administration Office are also among the many sponsors. LART, which is currently building its membership, hopes the conference will become a yearly event. The conference will be held at the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, New York University, October 21-25. For more information, go to www.lartny.org.