The Write Stuff

San Antonio's West Side writes first chapter on brand-new book festival

Plaza Guadalupe will host the West Side's newest book festival.

Courtesy of Avenida Guadalupe Association

A new book festival designed to celebrate the magic of reading and promote the tradition of San Antonio storytellers debuts this September. Pachanga de Palabras: A Westside Book Festival will host its first-ever event on Saturday, September 28, from 6-10 pm at the Plaza Guadalupe.

The free, family-friendly event is open the public and includes book and zine vendors, live music, poets, interactive workshops for children and adults, a drag king story time, and food vendors.

Pachanga de Palabras was organized by Echale Books, a traveling pop-up bookshop. Echale recently installed a Little Free Library by Las Palmas Elementary School. The group specializes in Chicanx/Latinx/bilingual/Spanish, feminist, LGBTQI, and progressive books, although it offers genres of all kinds.

Gianna Rendon, founder of Echale Books, is a West Side native. Her love of books stems from the numerous times her mom took her to the library during her childhood.

“We didn't have a lot of money, but we had all the books I could've wanted at the library,” she says.

Rendon founded Echale Books two years ago in response to President Trump’s election and as a way to help neighbors to access a diverse range of literature, particularly books by and about Latinx, feminista, and queer authors. She also sought to provide bilingual and Spanish language books.

“I consider many of our country's problems [as] stemming from ignorance, so I seek to offer people alternative view points,” says Rendon.

According to Rendon, Pachanga de Palabras will be an opportunity for people to learn about the challenges and triumphs of West Side community members past and present.

“The West Side has and still experiences institutionalized racism, which also includes the stereotyping [of] its people as stupid/criminals/lazy/no good,” Rendon says. “By celebrating the stories of the West Side, we seek to show West Siders how amazing and culturally rich they are as well as [show] the rest of San Antonio that our stories matter.”

That diversity will be on display in such activities as the drag king story time by La Voz de Los MENtirosos, San Antonio’s only drag king troupe. Poets from The Pride Center-San Antonio's monthly Queer Voices Speak Out program and IndigeNecias, an all-indigenous woman group, will also perform.

More than 30 vendors are scheduled to be at the event, representing many parts of San Antonio, including Aztlan Lubre Press, Bexar County's BiblioTech digital library, Ericfi.Zines, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Fiesta Youth, FlowerSong Books, Libraries Without Borders, and many more.

Like Rendon, many of these vendors live in or are active on the West Side, where community advocates are combating socioeconomic challenges in different ways. Organizers say the book festival is another way to even the playing field.

San Antonio’s leaders acknowledge that the Alamo City has one of the lowest literacy rates in Texas, and local bookshops often struggle to find an audience. Rendon says this event is an opportunity to help open a new chapter for locals.

“This book festival is not your average book festival,” Rendon said. “There will be music that makes you cry, skits that make you laugh. It will be loud. There will be dancing. Lots of chisme shared.”

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BOUND TO HAPPEN

San Antonio poet books prestigious Texas literary award

Photo courtesy of Texas Book Festival.

Naomi Shihab Nye is this year's recipient of the Texas Writers Award.

Naomi Shihab Nye has built an enviable curriculum vitae throughout her literary career. She served as the Young People’s Poet Laureate for the U.S. Poetry Foundation and the poetry editor for The New York Times Magazine and the Texas Observer, before inspiring a new generation of voices as a writer-in-residence at Texas State University. Her work garnered lifetime achievement awards from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Arab American Museum, and the National Book Critics Circle.

The Palestinian-American poet and educator can now add another honor to the list. On October 1, the Texas Book Festival (TBF) named her the 2024 Texas Writer Award recipient. The prize, formerly the Bookend Award, recognizes writers who have profoundly impacted Texas literature.

“Naomi Shihab Nye is not only a profoundly gifted and accomplished writer, but also a dedicated educator and cherished figure in the Texas literary community,” said TBF Literary Director Hannah Gabel via a release. “We’re thrilled to celebrate her remarkable body of work.”

Nye, a resident of San Antonio, is known for a genre-hopping bibliography that includes poetry, fiction, and children’s literature. Her best-known works include Everything Comes Next, The Tiny Journalist, Voices in the Air, Sitti’s Secrets, and Habibi. A native of Jerusalem who moved to Texas in 1967, Nye has frequently returned to her identity in her work.

As part of the Texas Writer Award, TBF will bestow Nye with an aptly Texas gift: a pair of custom handmade boots from El Paso’s Rocketbuster. Attendees will also get a chance to congratulate her first-hand during festival sessions for her two 2024 releases: an editorial work, I Know About a Thousand Things: The Writings of Ann Alejandro of Uvalde, Texas, and poetry collection Grace Notes.

This year’s festival takes place November 16-17, with signings, readings, and panels in and around the State Capitol. Admission is free, save for two ticketed appearances from headliners Matthew McConaughey and Malcolm Gladwell.

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