Superstition Review Presents Reading at Changing Hands Bookstore Sept 21!

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(Free-Press-Release.com) September 19, 2009 -- STELLA POPE DUARTE

A critically acclaimed author, human rights advocate and university professor. Critics have described her as one of the writers “who will enlarge humanity.” Born and raised in the Sonorita Barrio in South Phoenix, she is second to the last in a family of eight children. As a child, she was voted the shyest girl in school, and since then she says she has learned to “speak her mind,” and encourages others to do the same. In spite of national awards and recognition, Ms. Duarte has never forgotten her humble beginnings, and believes that her faith and love of family have formed the foundation for her success.

Her works include: Fragile Night, Let Their Spirits Dance, and, If I Die in Juárez, which won two Gold Medals in 2009 in the category of “Multicultural Fiction,” and an Honorable Mention in the International Latino Book Awards. If I Die in Juárez was also named a “Top Pick” in the 2008 Southwest Books of the Year Award, and was the winner of the 2008 Arizona Book of the Year Award for “Best in Popular Fiction,” In 2008, she received the 34th Annual Chicano/Latino Literary Prize from the University of California at Irvine. Inspired to become a writer through a prophetic dream of her father, in 1995, she has been described as a “major, new literary voice in America.” Her work has been nominated to the Book Sense List, ONEBOOKAz, the Pen West Fiction Award, and the Pushcart Prize in Literature.

RITA ACKERMAN

Born near Dodge City, Kansas, Rita Ackerman has always been fascinated with the Old West. Wanting to know about her father's family she began doing research on her family history and became a professional genealogist in 1990. This lead to more and more research in Arizona history and her book O.K. Corral Postscript: The Death of Ike Clanton. Rita has also been published in Wild West Magazine, The Journal of the National Outlaw-Lawmen Association, and is a regular contributer to the Tombstone Times Historical Journal. She is newsletter editor of the Phoenix Writers Club and a co-leader of the Writers Inspiration Group.

ANNIE LOPEZ

Annie Lopez is a fourth-generation Phoenician who grew up vacuuming, ironing and dusting in front of her family’s television set. Her first dream was to be a go-go dancer, appearing on variety shows in knee-high boots and a lime green mini dress. Cursed by birth order, short legs and strict parents, she was forced to abandon dance for another road to fame. Her desire to stare at people without actually talking to them because she was too shy led her to another fine art: photography. Since 1982, Lopez has exhibited her artwork at galleries and museums throughout the United States, including the Smithsonian Institution; The Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies; Tucson Museum of Art; Mesa Contemporary Arts and the Tempe Center for the Arts. Her work is currently on exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum and the Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.