Margarita Engle: Author put Fresno on the literary map.

Fresno's best-known children's author is making book news around the world. Actually, Margarita Engle lives in Clovis, but we can proudly claim her on behalf of the area. Since 2006 she has published seven books for young people, many reflecting her family history.

In 1947, Margarita's father, an American artist, read a "National Geographic" article about the city of Trinidad, on Cuba's southern coast. He went there to paint and met a beautiful Cuban artist. Neither spoke the other's language, but art and love conquered differences and they were married. Their daughter Margarita grew up in Los Angeles, but spent summers with her mother's large family in Cuba. Later, travel restrictions kept them apart, but by that time, childhood memories and a curiosity about Cuban history were deeply ingrained.

In college, Margarita gave up writing to study agronomy and botany. After teaching agronomy at Cal State Pomona, she returned to writing with an enhanced perspective and a new mentor, Chicano author Tomás Rivera.

Her novels in verse present vivid pictures of a Cuba filled with tropical birds, fragrant plants, exotic sounds and tastes, and above all with feelings that bring the people and the country to life.

"The Poet Slave of Cuba" tells of Juan Francisco Manzano, born a slave in 1797. Though slaves are forbidden to read and write, he learns how. This intelligent boy is kept as a pet by a rich woman, who makes him recite for guests. His story is almost too sad to read, but Margarita always offers a sense of hope, in this case his adult success as a poet.

Her second book, "The Surrender Tree," set in 1896 during Cuba's revolution against Spain, features a nurse who is an escaped slave. She heals people from both sides using medicinal plants. The book won a Newbery Honor from the American Library Association; Margarita is the first Hispanic author to receive such recognition.

"Tropical Secrets," tells the story of 13-year-old Daniel, who escapes Nazi Germany on a ship filled with Jewish refugees. When the United States turns the boat away, it sails to Havana. There a Cuban girl helps Daniel to learn Spanish and a new way of life.

"The Firefly Letters," my favorite of Margarita's books, is based on the real life of Frederika Bremer, a Swedish biologist who visited Cuba in 1851. A pregnant teenage slave serves as her interpreter, speaking English and Spanish. The third character, a wealthy girl, has less freedom than either of the other two.
"Summer Birds," a picture book, features Maria Merian, born in Germany in 1647. At age 13, she discovered that butterflies grew from caterpillars, rather than springing from mud, as people believed then.
"Hurricane Dancers" describes some Cubans' first encounters with the Spanish, again through the eyes of a bilingual slave.

Margarita's newest heroine, in "The Wild Book," is based on her grandmother, who was dyslexic as a child and who lived to be 103. The author knew her well.

Margarita's books have won Pura Belpré, Jane Addams and Américas awards, to name a few. She has been honored by the International Reading Association, the Library of Congress, and the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. Next month she will be a featured speaker at the Asian Festival of Children's Content in Singapore.

Her books have universal appeal for all ages. This bilingual author, who receives little notice in her home town, is bringing honor to Fresno. Viva, Margarita!

Valley Voice: Saturday, May. 05, 2012 | 12:00 AM

By Angelica Carpenter, Curator Emerita for the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature, 
Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno

Angelica Carpenter's Retirement

At the end of 2011, Angelica Carpenter, curator of the Arne Nixon Center decided to retire. Angelica has been with the Center since its conception and she has worked to make the Arne Nixon Center one of the most significant children's literature research centers in the country.

Below is the last Curator's Corner article that Angelica wrote in The Magic Mirror (Spring 2012). To view the complete newsletter, visit our website.

Greetings from a recent retiree with a new title, Curator Emerita. It was a difficult decision to retire at the end of 2011, as I absolutely loved my job, which I consider to be the best in the world. However it could be tiring (largely because I make it that way) and I was ready for a rest and a change. 

So now when I am at the Library, I’m there as a patron instead of a librarian. I’m writing a new biography for young adults, about Matilda Joslyn Gage, who was L. Frank Baum’s mother-in-law. That’s how she came onto my radar, through my interest in Baum and Oz, but she was a famous feminist and author in her own right. After she was widowed she spent winters with the Baums—her daughter Maud, Maud’s husband Frank, and their four sons. She encouraged Frank to write down the stories he told his sons, and to submit the to a publisher. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that Baum’s Oz is a feminist utopia, ruled by women. 

The Henry Madden Library is a terrific resource for authors. Before moving here, I wrote three books in a Florida city with minimal library resources. In Fresno I wrote two more, a much easier task with access to an outstanding academic library. My habit of writing about Victorians means that I need to read many books published in the Victorian era. It always surprises me how many of these are in the Madden collection. And if they are not, I can get them through Interlibrary Loan. A million books, dazzling databases, and specialist librarians who have helped me to track down all kinds of elusive information (like what year did bustles go out of style?)—research is fun here and wonderfully productive. While writing this book, I will stay involved with the Arne Nixon Center, as a volunteer and a Life Member of ANCA. 

I have also signed up to FERP, as part of the Faculty Early Retirement Program, starting next fall. This program allows retired faculty members to work part-time. My plan is to catalog, or help with exhibitions, or process the papers of authors or illustrators, or to do anything else that is needed. But not full-time and not early in the morning! 

It’s a wonderful job when you get to do anything you can dream of. If anyone had told me, when I was eight years old, that someday I would get to put on a national Oz conference, my daughter says that I would have started planning it right then. 

My plans were not accomplished alone—they involved the help and support of many other people, in and out of the Library. I thank all of you for taking my wild ideas seriously. 

The Library plans a national search to fill my job. In the meantime, the Arne Nixon Center will be led by Jennifer Crow, who is already working on some interesting new projects. My email will still be the same — angelica@csufresno.edu — and I look forward to hearing from friends and colleagues as I continue to work in children’s literature, in a slightly new capacity.

Happy reading!

A few celebratory pictures from Angelica's retirement party in December 2011:

Spring Flurries

Koko welcomes spring at the Arne Nixon Center with some friends and flowery decorations.
We also have some spring themed books on display in one of the Center's display cases, while our other display cases are loaned out to the Henry Madden Library's Samurai Exhibit.

Library's Dean, Peter McDonald &
ANC's Curator, Angelica Carpenter,
in front of the donation

We started off spring with the excellent news that Alma Flor Ada and Isabel Campoy are donating their collection of (mostly) Spanish language children's books, from various countries, to the Arne Nixon Center.
This collection is a great addition to the Center's foreign language collection, as well as being a complement to the Center's collection of the author's papers of Alma Flor Ada.
When the donation arrived at the Center last week, we filled almost a whole wall of shelving with these wonderful books.

The Center's preparations for hosting the 9th IBBY Regional Conference "Peace the World Together With Children´s Books" on October 21-23, 2011, are also picking up speed.
The conference will feature wonderful programs and speakers, such as Pam Muñoz Ryan, Peter Sís, Grace Lin, Margarita Engle, and so much more! To register for the conference and to get more information about the schedule, click here

Wrap-up and Pics from 2009 ANCA Annual Meeting with Margarita Engle

The 2009 ANCA Annual Meeting was a great fun! We had about 140 people RSVPd, and perhaps a bit more attended that day.

Thank you so much for everyone that joined us last Friday for some delicious Cuban-themed food and wonderful presentation from both Margarita Engle and WILPF's Jane Addams award.

Here are some more pics, courtesy of Howard Watkins, from the event. If you missed this one -- just remember to join us next time!

Award winning author, Margarita Engle, to guest speak at ANCA 2009 Annual Meeting

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with author Margarita Engle at the annual meeting of ANCA, the Arne Nixon Center Advocates. The meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, September 25, at the Henry Madden Library Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno (location change due to mandatory furlough at CSU Fresno campus). Following a reception at 6:00 p.m., the program will begin at 6:45 p.m.

Margarita Engle, who lives in Clovis, CA, is the Cuban-American author of three novels, written in free verse, for young people:

• The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano, won the 2008 Pura Belpré Award (honors Latino authors whose work best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children’s literature), the Americas Award, and many other national awards.
• The Surrender Tree, about a freed slave who treated the wounded from both sides in Cuba’s 19th-century struggle for independence, won the 2009 Pura Belpré Award, the Americas Award, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and it is a 2009 Newbery Honor book.
• Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba, published in April 2009, is already winning rave reviews

This event is open to the public and there is no fee to attend. Free parking is available. Reservations are required by sending email to mrianto@csufresno.edu or by calling (559) 278-8116. The author’s books will be available for sale and autographing.

For more information about the program: http://bit.ly/1zkhiD