Hello.
When I first started reading Margarita's work,
I was struck by how the personal narratives empowered
the history behind her stories.
As a student of history, I'm always
excited to see fiction and poetry take
on historical narratives, especially challenging
or understated histories.
When I was growing up, historical fiction
wasn't the most popular of genres.
It was hard to find strong work that
let me live through the history, experience it, not just read it
in a book.
I think that this is something Engle's prose poems excel at.
She lets us live the history she is presenting to us.
Her work fosters interest and curiosity.
While teaching her work, I had a student
who sought out further history on Cuba and its revolutions
after reading "The Surrender Tree."
That is what history, fiction, and poetry are all about.
That's what writing is about.
It's about creating a dialogue between the reader
and the text.
Engle weaves the history within the poetry
to create a personal connection for the reader
in a seamless manner.
During the lessons when students read their favorite parts
aloud, I could see them connect to the characters,
to the experiences, and it helped
them weave their own experiences into narratives of their own.
They brought their passion into writing
by mimicking what Engle does and bringing the details of botany
by describing vividly the environment
around the characters.
In "The Surrender Tree," Engle includes the meanings
for different flowers.
Yellow acacia flowers whispers secrets of love.
The fragrant blue Rosemary speaks of memory.
White yarrow foretells war.
It is the language of the protagonist knows best,
and the descriptions of the flowers
tell us as much about the character
as it does about the plants themselves.
In one of the residencies, a student
mentioned how the language helped
him imagine the people and the places
more clearly, how the setting inspired him
in the writing activity.
What I enjoyed the most about Engle's work
was the descriptions, the little lines that got
stuck in my head.
One of my favorite examples of this
is from "The Poet Slave of Cuba."
"You think we're the clay of the Earth.
Stay light while their distant nights filled with stars."
These words get under your skin they make you think and wonder.
Margarita Engle is the author of 12 books,
which have been awarded many honors,
more than I could list here, but they include the Newbery Medal,
which she is the first Latino American writer to receive,
the Sidney Taylor Award, and several Pura Belpré Medals.
Please help me to welcome Margarita Engle.