West campus news Releases Archive

Author Stella Pope Duarte to speak at Writers' Writing Series at ASU's West campus

Oct. 7, 2005

Stella Pope Duarte, renowned Latina author, will be the second guest speaker for the Writers’ Writing Series at Arizona State University’s West campus. Her lecture is from 6 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 19.

Duarte, born and raised in la Sonorita barrio in South Phoenix, began her literary career in 1995, after a dream in which her deceased father informed her she would become a writer. Since then, she has written and published a collection of short stories entitled “Fragile Night” and a novel entitled “Let Their Spirits Dance.”

“Fragile Night” won a creative writing fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and was named a candidate for the Pen West Fiction award. “Let Their Spirits Dance,” on the Book Sense List, won a second creative writing fellowship, was awarded the Arizona Highways magazine fiction award for 2003 and was nominated as a One Book AZ in 2004. Duarte also has been awarded the 2003 Excellence in Latino Arts and Culture Award, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Award in 2004 and the Outstanding Alumni of the Year award by the American Association of Community Colleges in 2005. She currently is working on a second novel entitled “The Women of Juarez.”

Publisher HarperCollins has described Duarte as a “major, new literary voice in America.” Her work summons audiences of all ages, and her lectures include topics on culture, diversity, education, literacy, leadership, women’s rights, Chicano/Latino history, writing and storytelling.

This is the first year of the Writers’ Writing Series. Organizers from the department of Language, Cultures, and History in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences intend to host a monthly event on campus.

Duarte’s lecture is free and will be held in the Delph Courtyard at ASU’s West campus, 4701 W. Thunderbird Road, Phoenix. Visitor parking is $1 per hour. For more information call (602) 543-6020.

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