12/17/2010
This afternoon, as part of its 2nd Annual Books are Great Gifts campaign, the Twitter literary community LitChat is sponsoring a charitable book auction featuring signed books from some of your favorite authors. Some you will know, others you SHOULD know. One you do know is me. I will send the winning bidder signed copies of The Hummingbird's Daughter, Into the Beautiful North and Mr.Mendoza's Paintbrush -- plus some cool swag from my treasure box. Sign in this afternoon and bid big!
Thanks!
http://litchat.net/2nd-annual-books-are-great-gifts-campaign/2010bagg-book-auction/
Lennon
Thanks!
http://litchat.net/2nd-annual-books-are-great-gifts-campaign/2010bagg-book-auction/
12/08/2010
I've been reading so many thoughts about John Lennon and his art and life and death today. Seems that everyone recalls that bad day--like the day JFK was slaughtered. Where were you?
I was in Tijuana. I was in a place called The Barrio of Shallow Graves. Great name for a neighborhood. Bad place to live.
It was night. I have written about this before. There was a young girl whose face was covered with impetigo sores. She lived in a dirt canyon with no electricity or running water. There was a broken refrigerator at the top of the slope with a pile of human excrement inside, sitting on the shelf like some hideous dessert. Gang-bangers filled the dark alleys around the girl's house, and they had tried to explode our vehicle by putting a lit cherry bomb in the gas tank.
I was working for Pastor Von in those days. Translator. Bringing words to the teeming, silenced peopel of the canyon. And medicine. It was pretty direct--the girl's scabs had to be broken through so the medicine could get into the face-mange that was disfiguring her. I held her as the missionaries scrubbed that bloddy patch on her face and broke her heart. It was torture, let's face it. She writhed and cried and begged me to stop them, but I held her against my chest and promised her it would be all right.
Sure, we healed her. But was it all right? Did her world improve? Did her face? Maybe for a while. You do your best, and you hope. Right? Heal the sick, isn't that what the work is supposed to be? Feed the hungry? Clothe the naked? Comfort the widow? We were solid on every level, and her mother was a widow to boot. Covered on all the God-chores. My little task was also this: give voice to the voiceless.
Got home stinking of poverty. I had that orphanage stink on me too--pee and dogs and spoiled food and hair oil. Baby shit. I'd be checking myself for lice later. But I walked in my door at midnight and a voice in the dark called out: "Did you hear about John Lennon?"
That's where I was and what I was doing when I heard. The world did not get better. And later, when I went to see family in Sinaloa, I saw this painted on a wall: LENNON DON'T LET ME DOWN. It wasn't Lennon who failed.
That Was the Year That Was
I was in Tijuana. I was in a place called The Barrio of Shallow Graves. Great name for a neighborhood. Bad place to live.
It was night. I have written about this before. There was a young girl whose face was covered with impetigo sores. She lived in a dirt canyon with no electricity or running water. There was a broken refrigerator at the top of the slope with a pile of human excrement inside, sitting on the shelf like some hideous dessert. Gang-bangers filled the dark alleys around the girl's house, and they had tried to explode our vehicle by putting a lit cherry bomb in the gas tank.
I was working for Pastor Von in those days. Translator. Bringing words to the teeming, silenced peopel of the canyon. And medicine. It was pretty direct--the girl's scabs had to be broken through so the medicine could get into the face-mange that was disfiguring her. I held her as the missionaries scrubbed that bloddy patch on her face and broke her heart. It was torture, let's face it. She writhed and cried and begged me to stop them, but I held her against my chest and promised her it would be all right.
Sure, we healed her. But was it all right? Did her world improve? Did her face? Maybe for a while. You do your best, and you hope. Right? Heal the sick, isn't that what the work is supposed to be? Feed the hungry? Clothe the naked? Comfort the widow? We were solid on every level, and her mother was a widow to boot. Covered on all the God-chores. My little task was also this: give voice to the voiceless.
Got home stinking of poverty. I had that orphanage stink on me too--pee and dogs and spoiled food and hair oil. Baby shit. I'd be checking myself for lice later. But I walked in my door at midnight and a voice in the dark called out: "Did you hear about John Lennon?"
That's where I was and what I was doing when I heard. The world did not get better. And later, when I went to see family in Sinaloa, I saw this painted on a wall: LENNON DON'T LET ME DOWN. It wasn't Lennon who failed.
12/01/2010
I'm leaving for Santa Fe soon. I know, I know--I said I was through for the year. But one more human rights event. Then I'll be done for 2010. What a year! Wow. How do you figure out a year where you started on Mayan pyramids and in Guatemalan caves with manatee skeletons stuck in the walls above your head, and book tours, and finishing Hummingbird II, and winning an Edgar Award and being named Distinguished Professor at your day job? Crazy, man. As my surfer buds used to say in San Diego: a for sure blow-mind.
It is becoming a habit to make lists at the end of the year. A habit for me, at least. I usually post all my travel dates. Fans seem to like to see what I'm listening to on ye olde iPod. Some fans like to know what poetry I'm reading. I can't even begin to remember the books I read this year.
So as a wrap-up of this year, and a start to the Urrealist list-making season, I offer you the itinerary for 2010. I don't know what 2011 will hold. But I know it'll end with the book tour for Hummingbird II. (Title forthcoming soon.)
January:
New Orleans, Quintana Roo, Guatemala, Belize, Cozumel.
Chicago Book Group
Joliet Public Library, IL
Kennedy Jr High Faculty Reading Group, IL
Joliet Book Event, IL
Phoenix, AZ
Illinois Bilingual Ed Convention, Naperville
February
DePaul LAS Event, IL
Tucson Festival of the Book, AZ
UTexas PA
Fairfield CT One City One Book Events
Portland OR
March
Closing Event, Plainfield IL
Virginia
Yakima, WA
May
Event w Dave Eggers for Ragdale, IL
Glen Ellyn Book Event, IL
Albuquerque, NM
June
BOOK TOUR/B North Paperback:
June 15, Rockport, MA; June 16, So. Hadley, MA; June 17, Portsmouth, NH;
June 19th, Northshire Books, VT; June 21, Cambridge, MA; June 22, Dallas, then Houston,
TX; June 23, Austin, TX; June 24, San Antonio, TX; June 25, Marfa then Alpine, TX;
June 27, Santa Fe, NM; June 28, Albuquerque, NM; June 29, Denver, CO; July 1, Washington DC.
July
London
Reading, Mr. B's Emporium, Bath
France
Squaw Valley, CA
August
Squaw Valley, cont.
September
Brooklyn Book Festival
Laredo, TX, One Book One City events
October
North Carolina
Sacramento State, CA
Jeff Bezos Campfire Event, Santa Fe, NM
November
Northern Trust West Coast Lecture Tour:
La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, Palm Springs, Newport Beach, Las Vegas,
Santa barbara, Beverly Hills
David Taylor Book launch, Chicago
December
Santa Fe
Keepin' busy.
It is becoming a habit to make lists at the end of the year. A habit for me, at least. I usually post all my travel dates. Fans seem to like to see what I'm listening to on ye olde iPod. Some fans like to know what poetry I'm reading. I can't even begin to remember the books I read this year.
So as a wrap-up of this year, and a start to the Urrealist list-making season, I offer you the itinerary for 2010. I don't know what 2011 will hold. But I know it'll end with the book tour for Hummingbird II. (Title forthcoming soon.)
January:
New Orleans, Quintana Roo, Guatemala, Belize, Cozumel.
Chicago Book Group
Joliet Public Library, IL
Kennedy Jr High Faculty Reading Group, IL
Joliet Book Event, IL
Phoenix, AZ
Illinois Bilingual Ed Convention, Naperville
February
DePaul LAS Event, IL
Tucson Festival of the Book, AZ
UTexas PA
Fairfield CT One City One Book Events
Portland OR
March
Closing Event, Plainfield IL
Virginia
Yakima, WA
May
Event w Dave Eggers for Ragdale, IL
Glen Ellyn Book Event, IL
Albuquerque, NM
June
BOOK TOUR/B North Paperback:
June 15, Rockport, MA; June 16, So. Hadley, MA; June 17, Portsmouth, NH;
June 19th, Northshire Books, VT; June 21, Cambridge, MA; June 22, Dallas, then Houston,
TX; June 23, Austin, TX; June 24, San Antonio, TX; June 25, Marfa then Alpine, TX;
June 27, Santa Fe, NM; June 28, Albuquerque, NM; June 29, Denver, CO; July 1, Washington DC.
July
London
Reading, Mr. B's Emporium, Bath
France
Squaw Valley, CA
August
Squaw Valley, cont.
September
Brooklyn Book Festival
Laredo, TX, One Book One City events
October
North Carolina
Sacramento State, CA
Jeff Bezos Campfire Event, Santa Fe, NM
November
Northern Trust West Coast Lecture Tour:
La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe, Palm Springs, Newport Beach, Las Vegas,
Santa barbara, Beverly Hills
David Taylor Book launch, Chicago
December
Santa Fe
Keepin' busy.
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