Overview of the Festival
The ninth annual Border Book Festival, The Divine Frontier/La Frontera
Divina, will take place April 3-6, 2003 in Mesilla,
New Mexico. The festival theme covers border issues of all types,
from geography to architecture to a broad range of concerns at the heart
of our borderland community. This theme is very exciting to us, especially
at this time of global, regional and local transformation and transcendence.
We who live in the borderlands realize the implicit power of our collaboration
as catalysts for this change!
This is our first time at this wonderful venue with many nearby restaurants,
coffee shops and stores. All our festival events are within walking
distance! The Town of Mesilla has been very supportive and we are thrilled
to be in such a historic setting. For more information about Mesilla,
visit http://www.oldmesilla.org.
The Border Book Festival has scaled down events this year. We will
offer most of the programming over a shortened festival schedule. We
are offering no workshops and few panels, so we can concentrate on our
Trade show, Storytelling tent and evening readings and our mini Border
film festival. We’ve moved the festival dates to April to accommodate
our local Spring Break.
The festival includes Libros Y Más,
a Trade Show featuring national, regional, and local presses and writers,
a series of panels and workshops for adults and children, Libros
en Vivo/Books Alive, children's programming including Stories!
Stories! Stories! a storytelling festival, as well as readings,
performances and literary activities for people of all ages. The Trade
Show with many publishers and authors will be held outdoors on the historic
Mesilla Plaza.
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Highlights of the festival will include the following:
- Libros Y Más: A Trade Show
featuring national, regional and local authors. Book signings and author
readings will take place during the festival week at the Storytelling
Tent.
- A mini Border Film Festival featuring the films of Lourdes
Portillo, Paul Espinosa, and Ray Santisteban. Portillo's film "Señorita
Extraviada" is about the mysterious deaths of over 300 women in
Juárez, Mexico. Paul Espinosa is a PBS award winner for his series,
"The Border." Various meetings will take place throughout
the festival weekend in the historic art cinema, The Fountain Theatre,
a block from the Plaza.
- A gala reading by Sandra Cisneros, at the Mesilla Community
Center, followed by ¡Pachanga! a celebratory dance.
- Stories! Stories! Stories, a
Storytelling Tent on the Plaza with ongoing readings and storytelling
that we feel will provide an accent to the book sales.
- A Sunday champagne brunch at the Double Eagle restaurant followed
by a tour of Mesilla lead by Dr. Jon Hunner, History Professor at NMSU.
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to top Invited writers and artists include:
You can read brief biographies of the featured artists
on our Biographies page.
- Sandra Cisneros, author of Caramelo, Women Hollering
Creek and the highly acclaimed coming of age classic, The House
on Mango Street
- N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer prize winning author of House
Made of Dawn
- Demetria Martínez, winner of the Western States Arts
Foundation Award, author of Mother Tongue and The Devil’s
Workshop
- Rubén Martínez, journalist and author of Crossing
Over: A Mexican Family on The Migrant Trail and The Other Side:
Notes from the New L.A., Mexico City and Beyond
- Lourdes Portillo, filmmaker and critic. Her movie credits
include Madres de Los Desaparecidos and Señorita Extraviada,
among others
- Ray Santisteban, filmmaker. Film credits include Voices
from Texas which won the Best Documentary award at the 2003 San
Antonio CineFestival
- Benjamin Alire Saénz, author of Calendar of Dust
and Carry Me Like Water
- Luis Alberto Urrea, author of By the Lake of the Sleeping
Children, Six Kinds of Sky, and other books about the border
experience
- Ricardo Aguilar Melantzón, Mexican/American poet, novelist
and translator, author of A Barlovento
- Loida Maritza Pérez, author of Geographies of Home
- Rich Yañez, author of the short story collection, El
Paso del Norte
- Stella Pope Duarte, author of Fragile Night and Let
Their Spirits Dance
- Paul Espinosa, filmmaker. His movie credits include: Y
No Se Lo Trago La Tierra/And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him, as well
as various PBS series, including The Border, which examines contemporary
issues along the U.S.-México border
- Denise Chávez, author of Loving Pedro Infante
and Face of An Angel
- Oscar Casares, author of Brownsville, a celebratory
tale of a Mexican-American community
- Willie Varela, Border filmmaker, Assistant Professor of Film
and Theatre at University of Texas-El Paso
...And many more local, regional and national writers, artists and
storytellers and presses.
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