Tuesday, August 20, 2013

What is Margarita Engle reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Margarita Engle, author of The Surrender Tree and other novels in verse. The most recent of her books for younger children is Mountain Dog.

Engle's entry begins:
I have always been a passionate and voracious reader, but my reading follows moods. I start every day with poetry, but when I read prose, I tend to alternate between fiction and nonfiction, grownup books, and children’s books. Right now, my reading mood is autobiography.

My reading day is also divided into moods. Dawn is for poetry. Each day at sunrise, I’m currently re-reading a bilingual edition of Times Alone, Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, translated by Robert Bly, who says of Machado, “His poetry secretes in itself the rhythm of the walker.” I’m a walker too, so I feel a deep kinship with Machado. His poems speak of attention to...[read on]
Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of The Surrender Tree, recipient of the first Newbery Honor ever awarded to a Latino/a. Other novels in verse about the island include The Poet Slave of Cuba, Hurricane Dancers, The Firefly Letters, Tropical Secrets, The Wild Book, and most recently, The Lightning Dreamer, Cuba’s Greatest Abolitionist. Engle has received two Pura Belpré Awards, two Pura Belpré Honors, three Américas Awards, and the Jane Addams Peace Award, among others. Books for younger children include Summer Birds, When You Wander, and Mountain Dog.

Engle lives in central California, where she enjoys hiking and helping her husband with his volunteer work for various wilderness search and rescue dog programs.

Visit Margarita Engle's website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Margarita Engle & Maggi and Chance.

My Book, The Movie: Mountain Dog.

Writers Read: Margarita Engle.

--Marshal Zeringue