NP & HCPL's Big Read Book Giveaway: INFINITE COUNTRY by Patricia Engel

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Have Their Say

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say and the Harris County Public Library invite you to join us for a book giveaway and discussion of Nuestra Palabra's 2024 Big Read selection, INFINITE COUNTRY by Patricia Engel. The first 50 attendees to register will receive a free copy of the book, courtesy of Nuestra Palabra through the Big Read grant.

Tony speaks w/ several guests about the Big Read and the importance of literary events like these!

Tony speaks with HCPL's Assistant Manager for Youth Services Anjela Martinez, Colombian anthropologist Dr. Esteban Acuña, & Victory Early College Student Andreina Dos Santos about the impact the book and books like it have.

Although the event is free and open to the public, limited seating is available. Please use the link below to register:

https://hcpl.bibliocommons.com/events/65b003ecf664ce3300228bc5

In addition to receiving a free copy of the book, guests will enjoy refreshments and an interactive panel discussion about the book, hosted by Tony Diaz, Founder of El Librotraficante and Director of Nuestra Palabra. Audience members will have the opportunity to participate and ask questions but should not feel pressured to have read the book ahead of time.

Please register on this page to be eligible for book giveaway. Feel free to bring guests to the event, but each guest that would like to receive a book should register separately, as we will hold one book per registration for the first 50.

Note: Must attend event in person to receive free book.

In Infinite Country, award-winning author Patricia Engel tells the powerful tale of a family divided. Set in Colombia and the United States and told through the shifting perspectives of each family member, Engel examines the beauty and cruelty of life in the diaspora, crafting “a breathtaking story of the unimaginable prices paid for a better life” (Esquire). With “meticulously rendered descriptions of Andean landscapes and mythology” (New York Times Book Review), Infinite Country is “at once a sweeping love story and tragic drama” (Elle), “forcefully examining what unites a family beyond the divisions borders and policies forge” (Los Angeles Review of Books). Through the intimacies of one family’s story, Engel “challenges us to consider that the United States has always been a place of borders” (Harvard Review of Books). “Told by a chorus of voices and perspectives, this is as much an all-American story as it is a global one” (Booklist).

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

Learn more about Nuestra Palabra: https://www.nuestrapalabra.orgegister

Anjela Martinez is the Youth Services Assistant Manager for Harris County Public Library. Anjela has worked for Harris County Public Library for thirteen years. She's passionate about providing library resources and programs to help children become life-long readers, learners, and library users. Anjela contributes her love for reading to her mother who introduced a young Anjela to a boy wizard named Harry. Besides reading, Anjela enjoys spending time with her family and friends, baking, traveling, and going on adventures with her dog Lobo. Anjela is currently reading Infinite Country by Patricia Engel and The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander.

Dr. Esteban Acuña is a Colombian anthropologist who specializes in ethnicity, mobility and migration. He is currently a visiting scholar at SUNY at Plattsburgh, and before recently moving to Houston he also taught at Freiburg University, in Germany, and Bard College, in New York. His latest ethnographic work has used life stories and mobile methods to study migratory movements in the Americas.

Victory Early College Student Andreina Dos Santos is a student at Lone Star Community College and an active scholar.

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com