AWP23—Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Guadalupe Garcia McCall is an author, poet, and educator who has been noted as a “leading voice in Chicana and Latina children’s and young adult literature.” She received her B.A. in Theatre and English from Sul Ross State University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. She is a recipient of the 2012 Pura Belpré Medal and currently teaches young writers in the MFA program at Antioch University.
In this episode, in collaboration with Bloomsday intern Elena Welsh, a lover and scholar of YA, we talk about McCall’s mission to reach young people who did not see themselves in literature growing up and to represent the Hispanic community’s “mamas, tios, and tias.” McCall also discusses the differences between publishing with the Big Five and independent publishers and how each choice affects growth and the longevity of her books. Further, McCall emphasizes her role and experience as an educator in her creative and publication processes, and how essential her interaction with educators and librarians in schools is to her work. McCall stresses the care it takes to find the right translator for her work, to ensure that the Spanish language “sounds true” to her Hispanic readers. And finally, excitingly, McCall tells all about her most recent work, a collaboration with David Bowles’, Secret of the Moon Conch (Bloomsbury, 2023). Tune in to here more about the inspiration behind and the process by which she wrote this time-traveling love story.
P.S. We talk about a haunted house Garcia McCall and Bowles visited to inspire the sense of place in The Secret of the Moon Conch. Who doesn’t love a good ghost story?
Honorable Mentions:
Check out her brand new book, forthcoming March 2024, Hearts of Fire and Snow
YouTube reading with Garcia McCall, 2012 Belpré Author winner
Conversation with Garcia McCall about getting bit by the writing bug at a young age
photo credit: Michael Mercado Smith
Audio by Bloomsday Literary in partnership with the official 2023 AWP Conference & Bookfair
