Join us at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore on Tuesday, June 6th at 7:00 PM when award winning author and poet ANA CASTILLO joins us for an in-person event. Ana will read from and discuss her brand new book of short stories Doña 
Cleanwell Leaves Home. Ana will sign copies of her book after the presentation. Ana will be joined in conversation by ROSA MARTINEZ (right).
Register for this free event through Eventbrite or at the bookstore. Click Here to preorder a copy of Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home.
Literary legend Ana Castillo explores the secrets that are kept within households and the women they impact the most in this breakout collection that cements her place as a leading voice in feminist fiction.
The first person in her traditional Mexican American family to graduate from high school, Katia is entering adulthood at a time of turbulent change. Across the nation young people are fighting for civil and women’s rights and protesting the Vietnam War and brutal dictatorships in South America. Like so many of her generation, Katia wants to make the world a better place, and is determined to follow her own path. As she considers moving to California to join La Causa, Mexican American activist Cesar Chavez’s movement to improve the working conditions of migrant farmer workers, Katia receives an unexpected gift from her father: a plane ticket to Mexico City. Bring back your mother, he says, tell her, her children need her. And so Katia joins this cause, to get Tina back to Chicago. But it won't be easy. Katia must learn to navigate a liberated version of her mother in a new country where she is now hawking supposedly superior cleaning products, called Donna Clean Well.
Katia is but one of the voices introduced in this dazzling collection of short fiction. Spanning from Chicago to Mexico to New Mexico, the stories in Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home illuminate a chorus of people whose stories will leave you breathless.
“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 An American Marriage
“Ana Castillo is de primera storyteller.”—award-winning author Julia Alvarez
ANA CASTILLO is a celebrated poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, editor, playwright, translator, and scholar. Born and raised in Chicago, her award winning, bestselling titles include the novels So Far from God, The Guardians, Peel My Love like an Onion, and Sapogonia, which was a New York Times Notable Book, and the poetry collection I Ask the Impossible. She has received numerous awards, including the 2018 PEN Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award, the Fuller Award for Lifetime Achievement, and this year was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.
ROSA MARTINEZ is Associate Professor in the English Department at California State University, Sacramento, where she teaches Chicano/Latino/a literature courses. She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Her poetry has been named a finalist in the Boston Review’s annual poetry contest, and her scholarly publications include a chapter on Herman Melville and Miguel de Cervantes, and a forthcoming article about Ellen Craft’s famous 1848 escape from American Slavery.
THIS EVENT is free but pre-registration is required. Registration ends at 4:30 pm on July 18th.
BECAUSE SEATING is limited, please register only if you plan to attend.
DUE TO SPACE limitations, we may not be able to accommodate every person at an event, so early registration is encouraged.
WALK-INS will be accommodated only if space allows.
WE ASK that attendees arrive between 6:45 and 7:00 PM for the event.
PLEASE leave your non-support companion animals at home.
OUR shared restrooms are not accessible after 6:30 PM, please plan accordingly.
