Américas Award Winning Authors Featured in Interviews on Vamos a Leer Blog

Thanks to an exciting CLASP collaboration, Américas Award winning authors and illustrators are appearing in recent interviews on the Vamos a Leer blog, a website dedicated to supporting the teaching of Latin America through literacy and literature.

The collaboration emerged naturally as a result of the ongoing efforts of CLASP Outreach Chair Keira Philipp-Schnurer (Latin American & Iberian Institute, The University of New Mexico) and Américas Award Coordinator Denise Woltering-Vargas (Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Tulane University), who have worked closely together over the last few years to expand the reach of the Américas Award.

The Vamos a Leer blog frequently highlights the exceptional children’s and young adult (YA) literature produced by Américas Award winning authors and illustrators, but in Fall 2016 this effort expanded to include an ongoing series of one-on-one interviews with Américas Award recipients. The interviews invite award winners to discuss their perspectives on the current relevance of their work and how it fits within the context of teaching about Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino cultures in K-12 classrooms and the community. Interviewees have also responded to the broader social and political climate by offering words of encouragement and advice for K-12 educators who seek to create supportive, diverse classroom environments.

Recent interviews have highlighted the work of Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, and Margarita Engle. The interviews will continue throughout the spring and beyond, bringing with them the opportunity to broaden teachers’ perspectives on the importance of providing students with authentic, engaging, and meaningful multicultural literature.

We encourage you to learn more about the interviews and related resources by visiting the Vamos a Leer blog or to learn more about the Américas Award and related resources by visiting the award page.