Blog on Latino Authors and Books

by Adriana Dominguez

Hello everyone! I was thrilled to listen to the interview with Dr. Jamie Campbell Naidoo on the work that he is doing to reach out to Latino children, and inspired to take advantage of Teresa Walls’ gracious invitation to participate in this forum to let you know about my own outreach efforts in this area.     

I know many of you, but please allow me to introduce myself to those of you who don’t know me: I have over 10 years of experience in Latino publishing, most recently as Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where I managed the children’s division of the Latino imprint, Rayo. Prior to that, I was Children’s Reviews Editor at Crí­ticas magazine, published by School Library Journal. I’ve worked for a number of publishers, both on a full time basis and as a freelance consultant, on English and Spanish language books.  

After leaving Harper, I decided that I would take all of the knowledge I have gathered during my career in Latino publishing and share it with others interested in Latino authors and books. This led me to launch VOCES (http://adrianadominguez.blogspot.com/); a blog that focuses on providing readers with what I call “an insider’s perspective” of the Latino book market. The blog breaks news on the market, highlights Latino books and authors that deserve notice, and provides relevant information on issues that affect Latinos–for instance, I recently posted some clips from ABC’s “We the People” series, which explored the demographic growth of Latinos in the US, and its impact on the country’s culture, and future. ALSC members will be interested to know that my latest post is about El dí­a de los niños/El dí­a de los libros! I have worked very closely with ALSC to promote Dia in the past, and I plan on continuing to do so via this new medium. I recently added a calendar of book-related events from all across the country, such as readings, workshops, and conferences that I encourage you to explore as well. I would love it if you would submit your own events so that I may list them in the calendar.    

I want to share this blog with you because through my work with ALA, ALSC, and REFORMA, I have become fully aware of the extents that librarians will go to in order to keep informed about books for the sake of their patrons! I hope that this blog provides you with some of the information that you thirst for, in particular as it relates to the Latino market, since that is a sometimes a challenging area to learn more about. So, please subscribe and support this blog and what it tries to do. And provide feedback–I am always looking for ways to make it more useful to readers. This blog’s goal is to become the place where Latino authors and books are the #1 priority. We need such a place, particularly during these tough times, that have been particular hard on the Latino publishing industry. Thank you in advance for your support; I look forward to seeing you there!