Virtual Event: “Being Imperfect with Erica Sánchez,” October 9

Wednesday, October 9, 7 p.m.

Presented by the Rock Island and Silvis Public Libraries

With the author appearing in a special virtual program hosted by Illinois Libraries Present and the Rock Island and Silvis Public Libraries, the October 9 event Being Imperfect with Erica Sánchez will find the author of the New York Times bestseller I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter in conversation with Cynthia Pelayo, the Times having raved that Sánchez's book was "alive and crackling – a gritty tale wrapped in a page-turner."

Erika L. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her debut poetry collection Lessons on Expulsion was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award, while her debut young adult novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter was a number-one New York Times bestseller, a National Book Award finalist, and the Tomás Rivera Award winner. Recognized by Time magazine as one of the best YA novels of all time, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter has also been adapted for the stage at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, and is being made into a film directed by Academy Award nominee and Barbie co-star America Ferrera. Sánchez, whose critically acclaimed memoir-in-essays Crying in the Bathroom won the Chicago Review of Books Nonfiction award, was a Fulbright Scholar, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent fellow from the Poetry Foundation, a Princeton Arts Fellow, a recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation, and a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She lives in Chicago with her family.

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award-winning and International Latino Book Award-winning author and poet. Pelayo writes fairy tales that blend genre and explore concepts of grief, mourning, and violence. She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, and The Shoemaker’s Magician.

This virtual event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering premier events. ILP is funded in part by a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, a department of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).

Being Imperfect with Erica Sánchez will begin on October 9 at 7 p.m., participation in the virtual event is free, and more information is available by calling (309)732-7323 and visiting RockIslandLibrary.org, and calling (309)755-3393 and visiting SilvisLibrary.org.