Alma Luz Villanueva

SOFT CHAOS, my new book of poetry, is now available on www.amazon.com- please feel free to review it. It turned out beautifully, thanks to the lovely 'Windhorse' painting on the cover (by the painter, Alfredo Arreguin- titled 'Jardines del pedregal), which is now visible on Amazon. I've also completed my fourth novel which was written in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, it's now seeking publication. It follows a love story of an older woman, younger man, which also takes in the world and time they, we all, live in...as the Hopi/​Pueblo Fifth World, the Mayan Sixth World approaches, December 21, 2012...NOT a time of violence but a time of transformation.

I was raised in San Francisco's Mission District by my curandera/​healer Yaqui grandmother, Jesus Villanueva... with the assitance of my mother, Lydia Villanueva and her sister Ruth Villanueva. Jesus taught me to recite poetry by heart (in Spanish) for church and she often read me poetry in Spanish. So, though I write in English, the language/​meaning is rooted in Spanish, and the Yaqui prayers I heard my grandmother sing every morning.

I began to publish poetry first in the late 1970s, winning first place in poetry with the University of California at Irvine's Chicano Literary Prize. My books of poetry: BLOODROOT- MOTHER, MAY I?- LIFE SPAN- PLANET (which won the Latin American Writers poetry prize, N.Y.)- DESIRE (poetry chosen for THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY, 1996)- VIDA.

My three novels: THE ULTRAVIOLET SKY (won an American Book Award, listed in 500 GREAT BOOKS BY WOMEN)- NAKED LADIES (won the PEN Oakland fiction award, anthologized in CALIENTE, The Best Erotic Latin American Writing)- LUNA'S CALIFORNIA POPPIES. And WEEPING WOMAN, LA LLORONA AND OTHER STORIES, a collection of short stories. The fiction and poetry has been widely anthologized in the USA and abroad, and is included in textbooks from grammar to university level. Most recently, a short story from WEEPNG WOMAN, LA LLORONA, in the anthology SUDDEN FICTION LATINO, also with Marquez, Allende, Bolano and others. All my work can be found on Amazon.

I taught fiction/​poetry at UC Santa Cruz for four years, as well as Cabrillo College in Aptos for two years- have done guest teaching at Naropa Institute (in Boulder, Colorado)...Mesa College, UC San Diego (in San Diego, California)...Stanford University, Pacific University, to name a few. I now teach in the MFA in Creative Writing program with Antioch University in Los Angeles www.antiochla.edu- a low residency program that meets in June/​December for ten intense teaching/​learning days, then an intimate, very in-depth, one-on-one, exchange via the internet, online university, with six students for the semester. I've taught at Antioch for over twelve years at this date 6/​11- many of my students have gone on to publish, and I'm very proud of them. I now live in San Miguel de Allende (Mexico), the past seven years, and travel during the year to do readings, workshops, seminars, writer visits, as well as private ones here in San Miguel. So I travel back and forth between Mexico, the USA, the ancient trade routes, during the year.
I'd like to add that I've been doing readings of my work, presentations, for thirty plus years as of 2009...I often like to lead the audience in a guided visualization to the top of the Pyramid of The Sun in honor of the Mayan Long Count Calendar's ending/​beginning on December 21, 2012 (when they foretold an unfolding of human spirit, and the Hopi very challenging times). I use/​play the clay Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) flute, I bought years ago at the foot of the Pyramid of The Sun, as a guide to the top, that view, that vision. In my thirty plus years of doing readings, I've had quite a few standing ovations, and once an audience spontaneously shouted, I LOVE YOU, and I said it right back to them; and my poetry and fiction has been the subject of Masters/​Ph.D. thesis papers. But most of all, I believe poetry is from the heart/​spirit to the heart/​spirit of another human being- and if they stand to honor that, I'm very happy. Again, I travel during the year to do readings, seminars, workshops- please feel free to contact me directly at the email on this site for available dates, as well as publication permissions, queries. Also, to students who contact me regarding their thesis papers, I'm glad to answer up to four questions but I can't answer a list, but I do love to hear from students and readers, their personal thoughts...and I do receive wonderful emails, gracias. And so, as we approach the Hopi/​Pueblo Fifth World...the Mayan Sixth World...the unfolding of the human spirit, the next one thousand years, may it be so... If I ever see you in person, ask me to show you the 'nakwach,' the Hopi handclasp of brother/​sisterhood. An amazing Hopi kachina carver/​creator at Indian Market, Santa Fe- his kachinas were stunning- while talking and laughing, suddenly grabbed my right hand in the 'nakwach,' telling me, "This is how we'll know each other in the next World."
Into the Sixth World...

My email: almaluz.villanueva@​gmail.com
Blog: www.almaluzvillanueva.blogspot.com