BEN & EVE IN THE NEWS & ON THE BLOGS

Poets and Writers Magazine has named Benjamin Alire Sáenz as one of The 50 Most Inspiring Writers in the World. My gosh, we thought he was just Ben. "His novels contain heartbreakingly honest and unsentimental portraits of people struggling with such traumas as alcoholism and sexual molestation," says P&W. Of course, being biased, we think that description sounds a lot like Last Night I Sang to the Monster. Cinco Puntos will be celebrating Ben's novel and all of our new titles weekend after next at the ALA-Midwinter Conference in Boston. Come by and see us at booth number 1331.

At the link below listen to this great podcast of Heidi Estrin of the Book of Life interviewing YA novelist Eve Tal at the annual Jewish Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Conference in NYC. It's a great interview. Eve's interview begins at the 4:40 mark but I suggest listening to the whole thing. It's very interesting. As reported in an earlier post, Eve traveled to the U.S. from her kibbutz in Israel to celebrate her new novel CURSING COLUMBUS. The novel is about growing up as a Jewish immigrant in the Lower East Side of NYC in the early part of last century. She also spoke at the ALAN Strand of the National Conference of Teachers of English and her speech is here.

Jewish Kidlit @92Y sound bite