El Martillo Press @ Library Girl
Sun, Sep 10
|The Ruskin Group Theatre Co.
Join El Martillo Press authors: Sonia Gutiérrez, Margaret Elysia Garcia, and Ceasar K. Avelar as they team up with FlowerSong Press author Iris De Anda at Library Girl at The Ruskin Group Theatre Co. in Santa Monica! Matt Sedillo and David A. Romero will join them.
Time & Location
Sep 10, 2023, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM PDT
The Ruskin Group Theatre Co. , 3000 Airport Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90405, USA
About the event
El Martillo Press publishes writers whose pens strike the page with clear intent; words with purpose to pry apart assumed norms and to hammer away at injustice. El Martillo Press proactively publishes writers looking to pound the pavement to promote their work and the work of their fellow pressmates. There is strength in El Martillo. Founded in Los Angeles in 2023 by Matt Sedillo and David A. Romero, and launched with a diverse group of celebrated and hardworking writers who embody our working-class intellectual spirit, El Martillo Press maintains an editorial board that makes its selections for publishing.
Authors
Sonia Gutiérrez is the author of Spider Woman / La Mujer Araña and the recipient of the Tomás Rivera Book Award 2021 and the International Latino Book Awards 2022 for her novel, Dreaming with Mariposas. She is currently a Finalist for the Book into Movie Awards. Presently, she is working on her bilingual poetry collection, Paper Birds: Feather by Feather / Pájaros de papel: Pluma por pluma and her first illustrated book, The Adventures of a Burrito Flying Saucer. Paper Birds: Feather by Feather / Pájaros de papel: Pluma por pluma will be published by El Martillo Press in December 2023.
Margaret Elysia Garcia is the author of the short story collection Graft, the chapbook Burn Scars, and the daughterland (El Martillo Press, 2023). She’s the co-editor of the anthology Red Flag Warning: Northern Californians Living with Fire out on HeyDay Books in 2024. She writes about family, culture and surviving climate change disasters.
Iris De Anda, a Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker and musician, has been featured with KPFK, KPFA Pacifica Radio, organized with Academy of American Poets, performed at Los Angeles Latino Book Festival, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba, and is named one of Today's Revolutionary Women of Color. De Anda is author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon and Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent from FlowerSong Press. Find her on Instagram @lawriterunderground
Ceasar K. Avelar is the current Poet Laureate of Pomona. He is the writer in residence of Cafe con Libros Press, and the founder of Obsidian Tongues open mic. Avelar writes through the sociological lens of a blue-collar worker. He is the author of God of the Air Hose and Other Blue-Collar Poems (El Martillo Press, 2023). Avelar will graduate this summer from Cal Poly Pomona with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology.
Co-founders
Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle." His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg, Carl Sandburg and various other legends of the past.
David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press), a book reviewed by Gustavo Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican!), Curtis Marez (University Babylon), and founding member of Ozomatli, Ulises Bella.
El Martillo Press
Instagram: @elmartillopress
Margaret Elysia Garcia
Instagram: @writerchickmama
Donato Martinez
Instagram: @donatomartinez1
Ceasar K. Avelar
Instagram: @ceasarkavelar
Matt Sedillo
Instagram: @matt_sedillo
David A. Romero
Instagram: @davidaromerospokenword