New World Poets to Talk of Social Forces

La Terra Nova 1990--New World Poets, New World Visions continues today and Friday at Cal State Fullerton.

The three-day program, designed to promote the spirit of global awareness and understanding, was organized by Cal State Fullerton in cooperation with 1990-1992 Orange County Festival of Discovery and the Orange County Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission.

Writing on the Pacific Rim, a bilingual symposium with nine poets from American nations on the Pacific Rim, will be held from noon to 2 p.m. today in the Little Theater on campus. Participating poets in the free symposium are: Alfonso Barrera Valverde, Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, David Escobar Galindo, Carlo Illescas, Daphne Marlatt, Eduardo Mitre, Blanca Varela and Veronica Volkow.

Program coordinator C. George Peale, associate professor of Spanish at Cal State Fullerton, said the symposium “will take up three basic questions:

“What are the social forces in their countries that encourage and promote artistic expression? What are the social and economic forces that makes artistic expression difficult? And what are the social forces in their respective countries that repress artistic expression?”

Peale observed: “I think, given the national dialogue that’s been going on in the U.S. (over artistic expression, censorship and arts funding), it should be an interesting mirror to hold up. Certainly, the U.S. is not alone in facing these issues.”

An informal reception with the participating women poets will be held in the Women’s Center on campus following the symposium.

Tonight at 7:30, a lecture entitled “Pablo Antonio Cuadra--A Poet-Journalist’s View of Central America” will be held in Titan Hall A in the University Center. Cuadra is a poet and the editor of La Prensa, the main newspaper in Managua, Nicaragua. The lecture is free.

On Friday an all-day poetry workshop for 25 Spanish- and English-language poets who were selected from a pool of applicants will be held in the library on campus.

Peale said a 24-page bilingual anthology of works by the nine participating poets will be co-published by the university, for free distribution at each event. It also will be available to public and school libraries.

Mystery Fund-Raiser: A limited number of tickets are still available for “Murder at the Marriott,” a Sept. 21 fund-raising event at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel to benefit ARK Affiliates.

ARK (Advanced Resources for Kids) is a nonprofit, Anaheim-based group that assists foster families that take in abused children.

Brea novelist Jackie Hyman, whose new novel, “Echoes,” is a supernatural murder mystery set in part in Newport Beach, will be guest of honor at the dinner. Copies of Hyman’s new book will serve as table center pieces and organizers indicate that Hyman may have something to do with the evening’s “murder mystery.”

For information about tickets ($100 per person), contact ARK board president Joanne Reynolds at (714) 640-4800 by Friday.

Writing Class: Author and communications consultant Joan Talmage Weiss will conduct a writing class, The Book Inside You, Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 at 2969 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. The fee for the six-week class is $95. For information, call Weiss at (714) 497-8688.

Book Talk: Let’s Talk Books, a monthly book conversation group, will discuss Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera” at 10 a.m. today at the Newport Center Library, 856 San Clemente Drive. Free.

National Writers: Orange County author Jo-Ann Mapson (“Fault Line”) will discuss short-story writing at the meeting of the Southern California chapter of the National Writers Club at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Irvine Marriott, 18000 Von Karman Ave. Members, $10; non-members, $12.

Columnist Talk: Author and Los Angeles Times columnist Jack Smith will read some of his columns at Steve Mellow’s Readers’ Theater at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Newport Center Library, 856 San Clemente Drive. Members of the audience also will read columns penned by Mark Twain, Will Rogers, H.L. Mencken and Eleanor Roosevelt. Free.