Author and storyteller Stella Pope Duarte knows how to spin a tale. Beyond her many books and awards, her generosity and faith set her apart from most writers. After several careers, mostly in education, she began writing in 1995 after she had a dream that her deceased father told her to follow her destiny and become a writer. Not only does she sit at home churning out compelling prose and metaphors, but she shares her gift by traveling across the country and teaching the craft of writing. She’s taught creative writing to all levels. “I’ve always been an educator,” she said. Her words of wisdom begin with changes she’s experienced from within.
“It was me I had to change. My stories began to teach me. What I really wanted was to be free and let my spirit develop.”
In our phone conversation, Stella Pope Duarte was inspiring and mesmerizing. She described being at a school carnival and being offered a bench to stand on. She stood on the bench, taking note of the kids laughing and eating cotton candy and enjoying the rides. When started to tell a story, the entire carnival froze. “It seemed like the swings stopped in mid air,” she said. She captures that same sense of wonder whenever she speaks or writes her stories. Her unassuming presence is hypnotic, and before you know it, you are listening to a master. Pick up any of her books and see for yourself: Let The Spirits Dance, Fragile Night, If I Die in Juárez (American Book Award 2009) or her short story collection, Women Who Live in Coffee Shops and Other Stories (Chicano/Latino Literary Prize winner 2008 University of California at Irvine. She is no stranger to La Bloga and has been featured in a spotlight and interview by Daniel Olivas in 2008.
Currently, Stella is venturing into poetry. With her poems, she composes quickly and with her eyes closed (something she doesn’t advise doing); the strategy works for her. “The more I get out of the way the better the poem.”
As a teacher, Stella is extremely generous and her best creative writing students often become part of her family. She offers a line-by-line critique and goes the extra mile for students she believes have the calling for storytelling. She strongly believes in the young writers she works with. Of her mentorship, Manuel Saldate, 28, writes:
“I stopped writing for a long while, but it was in Stella’s class that motivated and inspired me to continue writing. Her mentorship has helped me reflect more internally and not hold back in my writing and tell more meaningful stories with multi-layered characters. I chose her as a mentor because I admired her style as a writer, very true to who she is as an individual; honest and culturally aware. Too, she’s an amazing presenter and oral story
By: Manuel Ramos,
on 2/18/2010
Blog: La Bloga (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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The Name Partner Carlos Cisneros
Arte Público, March
In this hard-hitting and timely novel about a drug company that puts its shareholders' profits over safety, Carlos Cisneros takes the reader on a whirlwind ride as his protagonist struggles with his responsibilities to his client, his family, and his own personal ethics.
Women Who Live in Coffee Shops and Other Stories
Stella Pope Duarte
Arte Público, March
Set against an urban backdrop of seedy motels and dilapidated houses next to industrial buildings and railroad tracks, Stella Pope Duarte's award-winning stories follow characters who make up the city's underbelly. Some strut through the lethal streets, flamboyant and hard to miss -- flashy divas, transvestites, and prostitutes, like Valentine, "one of the girls who decorated Van Buren Street like ornaments dangling precariously on a Christmas tree." Others remain hidden, invisible to those who don't seek them out -- bag ladies, illegals, and addicts.
Winner of the University of California, Irvine's Chicano/Latino Literary Prize, this collection of short stories set in Phoenix reveals the hard-scrabble people living on the razor-edge of city life.
Hasta la Vista Lola!
Misa Ramirez
Minotaur, January
When Lola comes home to her parents’ house to find a horde of relatives mourning her death, no one is more surprised than she is. The news had reported that one Lola Cruz, PI was found murdered in an alley, causing great alarm in the Cruz family. Before Lola can say “boo,” a cop comes to the house. It turns out the dead woman had a driver’s license with Lola’s information. Between avoiding an unsavory ex-boyfriend, sorting out mixed signals from the very interested but not yet committed Jack Callaghan, and filling in as a waitress at her parents’ Mexican restaurant, Lola tries to find out who the woman was and why she stole her identity. Was the woman hiding from someone who meant her harm, or is there someone out there who wants Lola dead?
This is a follow-up to Ramirez’s debut novel, Living the Vida Lola.
From the unquiet mind of Guillermo Calderón comes a haunting futuristic drama about war in the Americas: Diciembre. Performed by
Wonderful interview with Stella! She's so talented.Thanks for sharing her background as an educator. As a retired educator myself, I know the importance of teaching writing to our newer generations. They're lucky to have a lauded author as their teacher.