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Over the years, PBS Books has interviewed numerous talented Hispanic authors who write across various genres and for ages. In honor of 2023 Hispanic Heritage Month, PBS Books pays tribute to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively impacted and enriched our nation and society. To celebrate US Latinos and their culture and history, PBS Books will feature moments of our conversations with Hector Tobar, Maria Hinijosa, Kelly Lytle Hernández, Juliet Menendez, Claribel Oretega, Meg Medina and many more.

2023 Author Highlights

Witchlings - Book Cover
Bad Mexicans - Book Cover
Merci Suarez Can't Dance - Book Cover
Our Migrant Souls - Book Cover
Latinitas - Book Cover

Hispanic Author Talk Library

Héctor Tobar – 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival

PBS Books, in collaboration with PBS SoCal, interviews Héctor Tobar, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist. Tobar is the author of the critically-acclaimed bestseller “Deep Down Dark” as well as “The Barbarian Nurseries,” “Translation Nation” and “The Tattooed Soldier.”  

Claribel A. Ortega – 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival

PBS Books, in collaboration with The WNET Group in New York, hosts Claribel A. Ortega, a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author who writes middle grade and young adult fantasy novels inspired by her Dominican heritage. 

Luis Alberto Urrea – 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival

PBS Books, in collaboration with MPT in Maryland, hosts Luis Alberto Urrea,  Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of works of nonfiction, poetry and fiction, including “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” and “The House of Broken Angels.”

Juliet Menéndez – 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival

PBS Books, in collaboration with South Florida PBS, hosts a conversation celebrating the Library of Congress National Book Festival with Juliet Menéndez, author of “Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers”.

Kelly Lytle Hernández – 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival

Kelly Lytle Hernández is a professor of history, African American studies and urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she holds the Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History and directs the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Featured at the 2022 National Book Festival is her latest work, “Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire and Revolution in the Borderlands.”

Katie Gutierrez: 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival

PBS Books, in collaboration with GBH, is hosting a conversation celebrating the Library of Congress National Book Festival with Katie Gutierrez, author of More Than You’ll Ever Know: A Novel, to discuss her work and involvement in the festival.

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with Richard Blanco from Poetry In America

PBS Books is pleased to host a conversation with award-winning poet Richard Blanco, who a featured guest of PBS broadcast-series Poetry In America, with Poetry In America’s Founder, Director, and Host Elisa New. As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, join us to learn about Richard Blanco, his work, and his creative process.

Maria Hinojosa – 2021 Library of Congress National Book Festival

Maria Hinojosa’s nearly thirty-year career as a journalist includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WGBH, WNBC, CNN, NPR, and anchoring and executive producing the Peabody Award–winning show Latino USA, distributed by Futuro Media and PRX. PBS Books hosts Maria Hinojosa to talk about her book “Once I Was You.”

Author Talk: Sandra Cisneros

PBS Books is pleased to celebrate Women’s History Month by hosting a conversation with writer and activist Sandra Cisneros, who is the author of “Woman Without Shame.” Join us to learn about Cisneros and her phenomenal new collections of poems, hear the poet read two of her poems (English and Spanish), and more.

Author Talk: Meg Medina

PBS Books presents this Author Talk for Kids with Meg Medina about her book Merci Suárez Can’t Dance, the highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning and captivating Merci Suárez Changes Gears, for which she was the 2019 Newbery Medalist.

Sonia Sotomayor on “Turning Pages: My Life Story and The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor”

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor talks with PBS Books co-host Rich Fahle about here books, My Life Story and The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor at the 2018 National Book Festival.

Author Talk ‘Women of Light’: Kali Fajardo-Anstine

PBS Books is pleased to host a conversation with trailblazing writer Kali Fajardo-Anstine, author of Woman of Light: A Novel. Woman of Light is a multigenerational saga published by One World, an imprint of Random House dedicated to telling underrepresented stories. Kali’s book reclaims Indigenous Chicanas’ place in the history of the American West and Colorado. Protagonist Luz Lopez immerses the reader on an adventurous journey in the West, highlighting important issues of domestic abuse, alcoholism, racism, discrimination, police brutality, Mexican American ‘Repatriation,’ and more.

Pam Muñoz Ryan – American Ingenuity Author Talk

PBS Books, in collaboration with PBS SoCal, were honored to host this virtual engagement event with author Pam Muñoz Ryan as part of our exciting partnership with The Library of Congress for the 2020 LOC National Book Festival: Celebrating American Ingenuity.

Ada Limón – Trailblazing American Women Writers Project Series

Ada Limón, a Guggenheim fellow, is the author of five poetry collections, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Her fourth book Bright Dead Things was named a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She serves on the faculty of Queens University of Charlotte Low Residency M.F.A program and lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Kali Fajardo-Anstine – American Ingenuity Author Talk

PBS Books was honored to host a virtual engagement event with author Kali Fajardo-Anstine as part of our exciting partnership with The Library of Congress for the 2020 LOC National Book Festival: Celebrating American Ingenuity.

Natalie Diaz and Nikky Finney on Aerts for Justice at the 2019 AWP Book Fair

We were speaking with poets Natalie Diaz and Nikky Finney about Aerts for Justice, discussing issues like mass incarceration, civil rights, and poetics. Finney has written several books of poetry and is a recipient of a PEN America Open Book Award; she’s on faculty at the Cave Canem Academy of American Poets. Diaz’ first poetry collection, ‘When My Brother Was an Aztec,’ was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2012. She is 2018 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, a Lannan Literary Fellow and a Native Arts Council Foundation Artist Fellow.

Trailblazing Women: Author Talk with Anika Aldamuy Denise

PBS Books was honored to host a virtual engagement event with author Kali Fajardo-Anstine as part of our exciting partnership with The Library of Congress for the 2020 LOC National Book Festival: Celebrating American Ingenuity.

Lilliam Rivera on “Dealing in Dreams” at the 2019 AWP Book Fair

Lilliam Rivera and her novel ‘The Education of Margot Sanchez’ was nominated for the 2017 Best Fiction for Young Adult Adults (by #YALSA) and has been a featured speaker in countless schools and at several book festivals. Also a teacher of creative writing workshops, Rivera’s latest book, Dealing in Dreams, was just released by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Marie Arana on “Silver, Sword, and Stone” | 2019 Library of Congress National Book Festival

Peruvian-American author Marie Arana is not only senior advisor to the U.S. Librarian of Congress, but also the director of the National Book Festival. Her latest, Silver, Sword & Stone tells the stories of three contemporary Latin Americans embodying the forces of exploration, violence, and religion across thousands of years of vivid history.

Billy Collins and Juan Felipe Herrera on “The Rain in Portugal” at the 2018 Miami Book Fair

Billy Collins and Juan Felipe Hererra on “The Rain in Portugal” and “Imagine” at the 2018 Miami Book Fair interviewed by Jeffrey Brown.

R.J. Palacio on “Wonder” at the 2017 National Book Festival 

R.J. Palacio discusses Wonder at the 2017 National Book Festival. August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. WONDER, now a #1 New York Times bestseller and included on the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.