AUTHORS
The growing production of Latin@ literature in English and Spanish suggests that the number of readers for this type of literature is growing. Moreover, the expansion of the use of Spanish outside of the Latino community also suggests that this language has a great future in this country. Taking all this into account and that Chicago is one of the great centers of Latin@ culture production in the nation, Pilsen Fest 2019 recognizes that Chicago needs a broader platform for Latin@ Authors in the U.S. Book Arena. This year the Author's Pavilion at Pilsen Fest will feature about 12 Authors. Another way Pilsen Fest promotes cultural literacy is through a live poetry exhibition called the Spoken Word.  Each night right before the headliner’s set, local accomplished writers take to the main stage to recite their profound works.  

It's an honor to introduce José Ángel Navejas who will be presented with Pilsen Fest’s 2019 José Revueltas Award for Literature.

José Ángel Navejas came to the United States from Mexico in 1993. He is the author of Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant, an autobiographical work that has been widely adopted as reading requirement in universities throughout the United States for courses ranging from literature to Latino studies and sociology. In 2019, the Spanish version of Illegal became the first book translated by the University of Illinois Press in its 100-year history. Among other distinctions, Illegal has been chosen by the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities for its Illinois Reads Program (2018), the Freshmen Common Read at Cal-State, East Bay (2016-17), and the Moraine Valley Community College One Book One College program (2015). José Ángel has spoken on the plight of the undocumented at venues such as the Chicago Humanities Festival (2015), City of Asylum Pittsburgh (2017), as well as before academic audiences. He was Scholar in Residence at Monmouth College (2014), delivered the Dean's Diversity Lecture at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2017), and has been invited to speak at the University of Notre Dame (2019), Princeton (2018), Northwestern (2014-2015), and the University of Chicago (2015), among many others. 
 
In addition to Illegal, José Ángel has edited Palabras migrantes: 10 ensayistas mexican@s de Chicago (2018). He is also the author of Invierno (2019) and Un mojado en Chicago y tres discursos inaugurales (forthcoming in 2020).   
 
José Ángel is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he is writing a dissertation on a current literary movement of Spanish-language authors in Chicago. Recently, he was awarded the IUPLR National Mellon Fellowship for dissertation completion. 

Carolina A. Herrera

(Monterrey, Mexico). Juris Doctor, Universidad Regiomontana (1989), MA Creative Writing, Universidad de Salamanca (2019). Her first novel "#Mujer Que Piensa" (El BeiSMan Press, 2016), was awarded First Prize at the Latino Book Award, in the Best First Novel category, and Honorable Mention in the Best Novel - Romance category. She has been included in several anthologies, including: "Ni Barbaras, Ni Malinches" (Editorial Ars Comunis, 2017), "Palabras Migrantes, 10 ensayistas mexican@s en Chicago" (El BeiSMan Press, 2018), and "Lujuria" (Editorial Abigarrados, 2019). She's a member of El BeiSMan's Editorial Board. TEDx Speaker. She lives in Naperville, Illinois.

Leonardo Gil Gómez

born in Bogota, Colombia. Holds an MFA in Creative Language by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. On 2016, took part of the collective narrative project Vidas de Historia, una memoria literaria de la Organización Femenina Popular (2016) as writer and photographer. His first book, Celebraciones (Himpar, 2018) was awarded the  Beca para Publicación de Obra Inédita of Colombian Ministry of Culture. Currently resides in Chicago, where he is a Fulbright-sponsored Ph.D. candidate in Latin American Literatures and Cultures at Northwestern University.

Fernando Olszanski

was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has lived in Scotland, Ecuador, Japan and several cities in the United States. He is an educator, writer, editor and visual artist. He’s written the novel Rezos de marihuana (Marihuana Prayers), the poetry collection Parte de polvo (Speck of Dust), and the short story collections El orden natural de las cosas (The Natural Order of Things) and Rojo Sobre Negro y otros relatos (Black Over Red and Other Stories). As editor, he has compiled the anthologies América nuestra (America is Ours), Trasfondos, antología de narradores en español del medioeste norteamericano (Backstories, Anthology of Spanish Story-tellers in the Midwest), all recipients of the International Latino Book Award. He was Editorial Director of Contratiempo and Consenso literary magazines, and is currently the director of Ars Comunis Editorial. He lives in Chicago, USA.

Fermina Ponce

is a social Communicator and Journalist, specialized in Organizational Communications Management from the University of Sabana, Bogota, Colombia.
Her collections of poems Al desnudo and Mar de (L)una –Published by Oveja Negra—have had reverberations throughout the literary world in Latin America and in the United States. Al desnudo received an honorary mention as best poetry book from a single author in the ILBA 2018 Award (International Latino Book Award). Mar de (L)una is a finalist for the ILBA 2019 Award.
Fermina Ponce’s poetry grapples with universal themes while simultaneously addressing topics that pertain to her native country, or the country mired in conflict that we all carry within, as Ponce assures us. Her verses speak of human nature, its dualities, and of everything that constitutes a certain complexity that is sometimes so simple.
       Her most recent work, Poemas SIN NOMBRE, Filbo 2019 (International Book Fair of Bogota) –for which the chronicler, writer and photographer Enrique Patiño wrote the prologue—is the result of a non-existent journal that compiles her experiences from the point at which she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder II (bipolar depression). Fermina has become a voice for demystifying mental illness. Her goal is that with this book of poems, a conversation might ensue despite the judgement, prejudice, stigma and the fear of what others might say that prevails. 

Miguel Marzana

Poet and writer. He studied at the Higher School of Plastic Arts Raúl G. Prada and linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities at Universidad Mayor de San Simón in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia. He is the author of the collection of poems Decomposiciones - aceite de un cielo. He currently directs the poetry workshop for Contratiempo, a cultural magazine based in Chicago, he coordinates the project of poetic performance and scenic poetry: prohibited to read, his poems have been published in several anthologies and printed and virtual magazines inside and outside the United States. He is also a member of the continental movement Live Community Culture. Part of his work has been translated into English, Quechua and Catalan, he lives in Chicago.

​Olivia Maciel Edelman

received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She was awarded the First Prize for Poetry in Spanish (Northeastern Illinois University, 2014), the Poet’s House Award (New York City, 1996) for Más salado que dulce / Saltier than Sweet (March Abrazo Press), and the José Martí Award for essay writing in homage to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (University of Houston and Consular Body of Houston, 1993). Maciel is the author of Luna de cal / Limestone Moon, Filigrana encendida / Filigree of Light, Sombra en plata / Shadow in Silver (Swan Isle Press), and Cielo de Magnolias. Cielo de Silencios (Pandora Lobo Estepario Ediciones) among other publications. She is a professor of Spanish and Latin American literature, currently at work on a new volume of poems, translations, and scholarly criticism. She enjoys reading, hiking, drawing, listening to music, and taking photographs. Maciel Edelman was born in Mexico City and resides in Chicago.

Pedro Pablo Marín

BA in Philosophy, Franciscan University of Mexico. Books published: De calles, rostros y jornadas, 2015, Piedras Blandas, 2017. Pablo Marín has published in the following magazines: El Humo magazine, CDMX; Le Miau Nior, Madrid, Spain; Femme Fetal, Argentina; Music for Chameleons, Monterrey, Mexico; Palabra Pura, Chicago, Illinois.

Edna Jackeline Vázquez

Having started her ultrarunning career in 1998, Edna Jackeline Vazquez is an ultrarunning veteran, having represented her native Mexico in the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) and competing all over the world. Edna born in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico and she is a U.S. citizen since 2013, Edna has run countless races with distances from 50 to 100 miles, but her crowning achievement was, in 2016, being the first Mexican-American to ever complete the 4 Deserts race series — four 250 km self-supported stage races across the most inhospitable deserts of the world — staged by internationally renowned race company Racing the Planet. In October 2018 she presented her recent work Las Carreras de mi vida a fighting book, it is a book born from the heart that will inspire many to achieve their dreams. With a bachelor’s degree in Human Relations from the University of Monterrey in Mexico, graduate work at the University of Seville in Spain and with Business Administration Courses from Chicago’s Robert Morris University, Edna has long emphasized education as a major component of healthy living while always smiling and supporting others in their athletic endeavors. She is founder of Vive Healthy Sport and Nutrition a fitness studio located in Pilsen, before, she open Vive Healthy Edna spent 12 years as an operations manager in the highly competitive food manufacturing industry. 

Dalia Martínez

Novice writer Dalia Martínez was born in Durango México on March 1985. Martínez immigrated to Chicago, IL back in 2001 where she had pursued a higher education obtaining a Bachelors Degree on I/O Psychology and working as Human resources in various industries. Martínez is treading in the world of the authors with her first novel, Porque necesito un amante, which was published back in February 2019 under the wing of the publishing house Letrame, in Spain. Martínez is very passionate about writing and is working on publishing her second novel on late 2019. Martínez’s motto La vida es muy corta para beberla tan de prisa. Martínez is a woman that loves her family and her greatest hobby, besides writing, is running.

Coordenadas Magazine

Coordenadas is a literary magazine and growing community of writers and artists devoted to bringing together and supporting unsung voices from around the globe. Born out of resistance we started in the winter of January 2017 when Donald Trump announced to make public a weekly list of criminal actions committed by immigrants.         To counter the racist rhetoric, we asked family and friends to publish the positive. Using Facebook and a simple website, we gathered lists too and published them. But there was more to be said.
​        Coordenadas has grown becoming a socially-conscious and civically engaged publication capturing voices not likely to be heard, or published. We are building community and taking action around the issues that brought people here in the first place.

Alma Campos

is a Chicago journalist covering, city politics, immigration, labor and more. She is one of the cofounders, and the executive director of Coordenadas, a literary magazine and growing community of writers and artists devoted to bringing together and supporting unsung voices from around the globe. In 2019, she won the Illinois Humanities Seed Grant award for the magazine. She is also a former reporting fellow at City Bureau, a nonprofit civic journalism lab on Chicago's South Side dedicated to creating equitable media coverage and holding powerful forces to account. Alma is an immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico. She currently lives in McKinley Park in Chicago with her daughter, Zella. Coordenadas.us

Leonel Hernandez

is a Mexican-American photographer born and raised in the grimiest part of the Mid-West, Chicago, IL. He is the director of photography at Coordenadas Magazine at coordenadas.us. Leo spends most of his time taking photographs of abandoned buildings, contaminated land sites, as well as places most people would rather forget about. He is constantly searching for humanity in places where few are likely to tread.

Samuel Du Bois

is a Polish-American writer. He was born in Chicago and raised near the Gary steel mills. He is a co-founder and editor at Coordenadas at coordenadas.us. He won the Nopales con Cielo Award for non-fiction and fiction. This May, he finished writing his book: The Line. This non-fiction narrative is set in Chicago, Gary, Juárez, and Osaka. It is about death and love. 

MAᖆKOZ

operates Vagabond Street Books/Libreria callejera “los vagamundos”. He is 12-years old and entering the 7th grade. Influenced by the street vendors in Mexico City and New York City, MAᖆKOZ sells used books at the Pilsen Community Market. He sells affordable children, young adult, and adult books, from Dr. Seuss, Sandra Cisneros to Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His book prices range from $1 to $10.00. In addition to books, he also sells a small assortment of bookmarks, Mexican wrestling masks, and t-shirts. He seeks to encourage reading in the community, especially among the young adults. He would like to use his earnings to attend college. MAᖆKOZ’ favorite book(s) is the Harry Potter series and follows the Oakland Raiders and the Chicago White Sox.

POETRY / SPOKEN WORD

​Oriette D'Angelo

is a writer from Venezuela born in 1990. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Spanish Creative Writing at The University of Iowa. Author of the poetry book Cardiopatías (Caracas, Monte Ávila Editores, 2016), which obtained the Prize for Works of Unpublished Authors. Her poems have appeared in anthologies in Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Spain and Ecuador. Her second book of poems, A través del ruido / Through the Noise, will be published in 2020 by Scrambler Books. 

Pablo Ramirez

is an artist, organizer, poet that has deep ties to the neighborhood of Pilsen. He has been heavily influenced by the cultural and artistic traditions that have existed in the neighborhood since he lived on 17th St. as a child. From the storytelling of the likes of Carlos Cortez, David Hernandez, Carlos Cumpian to the murals of Alejandro Romero, Marcos Raya and Sal Vega he took it all in and now translates it all out in his poetry. 
       He has deep roots in Hip-Hop and loves to communicate with that same swagger and style. 
​        Pablo is also co-owner of gallery/community space Pilsen Outpost.

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