“The Sky Peeled Back” (Santa Catalina Mountains) — Image by kenne
The sky peeled back for a moment,
and a weak ray of sunset
spilled over the scene
like the diseased eye
of some forgetful god —
the light bearing with it
cold in place of heat.
― Luis Alberto Urrea, from Into the Beautiful North
The Tucson Festival of Books (Click here to learn more) is this weekend, March 14th & 15th. There are a lot of reasons to attend this event, high on the my list is to attend a tribute to Chuck Bowden, a southwest literary legend. Bowden died last August at age 69 here in Tucson. One of the panel members will be author and friend, Luis Alberto Urrea.
Tony Davis writes in today’s Arizona Daily star:
“In 1993, just after Luis Alberto Urrea’s first book Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border hit the shelves, Urrea got a 6 a.m. call at his San Diego home from a gruff, gravelly voice.”
“The caller said, ‘This is Chuck Bowden. I stayed up all night reading your book. You own me money.’
I asked why. He said, ‘Because I ordered 40 copies for my friends,’ Urrea recalled.”
I first learned of Urrea when he appeared on Bill Moyers’ Moyers and Company in 2012, during which he read from his epic poem, Ghost Sickness, about the death of his father.
I continue working at becoming a better student of these two great writers.
kenne
Becoming is Superior to Being 