Publisher Description

Finalist for the 2017 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual NonfictionA lyrical memoir-in-essaysby anaward-winning Chicana writer: "the real power ofBlack Dovecomes when it speaks to what mothers face raising black and brown children all across this nation." (Los Angeles Review of Books)Growing up as the intellectually spirited daughter of a Mexican Indian immigrant family during the 1970s, Castillo defied convention as a writer and a feminist. A generation later, her mother's crooning mariachi lyrics resonate once again. Castillo-now an established Chicana novelist, playwright, and scholar-witnesses her own son's spiraling adulthood and eventual incarceration. Standing in the stifling courtroom, Castillo describes a scene that could be any mother's worst nightmare. But in a country of glaring and stacked statistics, it is a nightmare especially reserved for mothers like her: the inner-city mothers, the single mothers, the mothers of brown sons.

looks at what it means to be a single, brown, feminist parent in a world of mass incarceration, racial profiling, and police brutality. Through startling humor and love, Castillo weaves intergenerational stories traveling from Mexico City to Chicago. And in doing so, she narrates some of America's most heated political debates and urgent social injustices through the oft-neglected lens of motherhood and family.

Author Biography

Ana Castillo is one of the most powerful voices in contemporary Chicana literature. She is the author of So Far From God and Sapogonia, both New York Times Notable Books of the Year, as well as The Guardians, Peel My Love like an Onion, and many other books of fiction, poetry, and essays. Her newest novel, Give It to Me won a 2014 LAMBDA Literary Award; her seminal collection, Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma was re-released as a 20th anniversary edition in November 2014; and the award-winning Watercolor Women, Opaque Men will be re-released in a new edition in the fall of 2016 by Northwestern University Press.

Castillo currently holds a faculty post at the Bread Loaf program with Middlebury College (VT). Previous teaching posts have included the first Sor Juana Ins de la Cruz Endowed Chair at DePaul University, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Visiting Scholar post at MIT, the Poet-in-Residence at Westminster College (UT), and the Lund-Gil Endowed Chair at Dominican University (IL) . Other awards include a Carl Sandburg Award, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Sor Juana Achievement Award by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago, and the Lifetime Achieve Award by Latina 50 Plus.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Until Soon, My Loves1.Swimming with Sharks (c. PEN World Voices Festival, 2007)2.Are Sons Born Hunters or Made? (c. Mothers Who Think, 2005)3.Bowing Out (c. Salon.com, 1999)4.Her Last Meals (c. More magazine, 2009)5.Remembering Last Cartoneras (c. Feminist Studies, 2008)6.Mijo's Canon in D Major7.Peel Me a Girl8.My Mother's Mexico (c. Latinas, 1995)9.Searching the Other Side10.When I Died in Oaxaca (Literature and Arts of the Americas, 2003)11.For the Next Generation of Dreamers (National Latina/o Psychological Association conference keynote, 2014)12.And the Woman Fled into the Desert13.On Mothers, Lovers, and Other Rivals

Review

"[Castillo] writes of her struggles with childhood poverty and the many obstacles that her family had to face on a daily basis. . . . It is a high-wire act to bring together a combination of personality characteristics and specific cultural touchstones and make it resonate with a wider readership, but the author handles it well. . . . A compassionate look at those crossing points in our shared lives." —Kirkus"This exquisite memoir is full of compassion and maternal love." —NBC News"Reading Black Dove is like sitting down to an intimate chat with Castillo about growing up with one foot in your parents' world and the other in your own. Thank you for this gift." —Veronica I. Arreola, founder of Viva La Feminista"Órale! Castillo teaches us how to become the Latina sister outsider we all dream of being." —Ileana Jiménez, founder of Feminist Teacher"Ana Castillo is an American treasure. Fearless, compassionate, and flat-out brilliant—she is the writer we need as we navigate the challenges of our ever-changing world." —Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow

Promotional

Co-op availableGalleys available by requestNational print campaign:Sending advance copies to the following publications:General/regional: LA Times, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, Bookforum, The Believer, Village Voice, Bloomsbury Review, The New York Times, Rain Taxi, Chicago Daily Herald, Book Riot, Buzzfeed, The Rumpus, El Paso Times, VICEWomen's interest: More, Elle, Oprah, Ms., Vanity Fair "Hot Type", Marie Claire, Bitch, BustPolitical: Mother Jones, The Atlantic, The NationLatino/a: Cosmo for Latinas, Latino, Latin American Review of Books, The Latin Post, Remezcla,Trades: Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, Library JournalNational TV and radio campaign: Melissa Harris-Perry, Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Latina USA with Maria Hinojosa, WBEZ (Chicago public radio), KANW (Albuquerque public radio), KTEP "Words on a Wire"Online and social media campaign: pitch interviews & reviews to: The Rumpus, Jezebel, The Hairpin, Goodreads, Shelf Awareness, Bookslut, xojane.com, Feministing, Colorlines, VICE, Guernica, Huffington Post, Salon, Slate, Las Cruces Sun-NewsPromotion through author's website: anacastillo.comBlurbs sought from: Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Diaz, Cherrie Moraga, Susana Chavez-Silverman, Domingo Martinez, Laurie Ann Guerrero, Michael Nava, Maceo Montoya, Reyna Grande, Joseph Delgado, Benjamin Alire Saénz, David Tomas Martinez, Adelina Anthony, Mario Alberto Zambrano, Tim Z. Hernandez, Ta-Nehisi CoatesBookseller blurbs sought from: La Casa Azul (NY, NY)

Review Quote

"Reading Black Dove is like sitting down to an intimate chat with Castillo about growing up with one foot in your parents' world and the other in your own. Thank you for this gift." -- Veronica I. Arreola, founder of Viva La Feminista "

Competing Titles

A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness: Writings 2000-2010 Cherrie Moraga 9780822349778 23.95 Duke University Press Books June 2011 Something to Declare Julia Alvarez 9781616205584 15.95 Algonquin Books Oct 2014 Before the End, After the Beginning Dagoberto Gilb 9780802145994 14.00 Grove Press Nov 2012 Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White Lila Quintero Weaver 9780817357146 24.95 University Alabama Press Mar 2012 Spit and Passion Cristy C. Road 9781558618077 15.95 The Feminist Press at CUNY Oct 2012 A House of My Own Sandra Cisneros 9780385351331 28.95 Knopf Oct 2015

Description for Sales People

Public awareness of issues such as mass incarceration, the prison-industrial complex, and police brutality have risen due to activist books and issues such as Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Swimming with Sharks considers how these issues affect the everyday lives of mothers who know, statistically, their sons are the most at-risk in this system. Ana Castillo is a prominent voice in the Latino/a community, with a dedicated and enthusiastic readership. She is extremely active, publishing as a translator, poet, and academic researcher alongside her fictional prose. Her name attracts the attention of multiple audiences. To give a sense of her wide range: while promoting Give It to Me (2014), Castillo went on a bookstore tour, but was also the keynote speaker at the National Latina/o Psychological Association conference, guest teacher at multiple writing workshops, and guest lecturer at various universities speaking on the intersection of structural racism and mental health.

Details