Posted by amybou on: Mon 11th Jun, 2012

Congratulations to Melinda Palacio, whose first novel Ocotillo Dreams recently won First Prize in the Mariposa Award for Best Book at the International Latino Book Awards in New York.

Palacio will appear on the First Book Panel at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference on Tuesday, June 12 with debut authors Ramona Ausubel (No One Is Here Except All Of Us), Amy Franklin-Willis (The Lost Saints of Tennessee), and Toni Margarita Plummer (The Bolero of Andi Rowe; Plummer is also an editor at Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press).

Here is a synopsis of Palacio's Ocotillo Dreams, which was published by Bilingual Review Press in 2011:

Set in Chandler, Arizona, during the city’s infamous 1997 migrant sweeps, Ocotillo Dreams is no run-of-the-mill border tale. In her captivating first novel, Melinda Palacio skillfully weaves a story of politics, intrigue, love, and trust. Isola, a young woman who inherits her mother’s Chandler home, relocates from California only to find that her mother had lived a secret life of helping undocumented immigrants. Isola must confront her own confusion and sense of loyalty in a strange and hostile environment. As she gets to know her mother from clues left behind, she grapples with questions of identity and belonging that eventually lead her to explore her life's meaning and to reconnect with her roots.

Melinda Palacio grew up in South Central Los Angeles and now lives in Santa Barbara and New Orleans. She holds an M.A. in comparative literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. A 2007 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2009 poetry alumna of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, she co-edits Ink Byte Magazine and writes a column for online journal La Bloga. Her work has appeared in the Squaw Valley Review, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Buffalo Carp, Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature, Maple Leaf Rag III and IV: An Anthology of Poems, among many other publications. Melinda's poetry chapbook, Folsom Lockdown, won the 2009 Kulupi Press Sense of Place award. The author recently completed a full-length poetry manuscript, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting.

“A must read for those who seek the heart’s truth on both sides of the border.”

—Stella Pope Duarte, author of If I Die in Juárez and Fragile Night

“Ocotillo Dreams is an evocative and powerful statement about human life and the conditions of immigrants in the United States.”

—Denise Chávez, novelist and director of the Border Book Festival

Visit amazon  to order the book or (better yet) pick up a copy at Chaucer's or The Book Den.

Congratluations, Melinda!

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Tags: Melinda Palacio, Ocotillo Dreams, First Prize in the Mariposa Award for Best Book at the International Latino Book Awards, Santa Barbara Writers Conference, Ramona Ausubel (No One Is Here Except All Of Us), Amy Franklin-Willis (The Lost Saints of Tennessee), Toni Margarita Plummer (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press).

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