Margarita Engle
Photographer: Shevaun Williams
Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, including Wild Dreamers, a Pura Belpré Honor Book that was also long listed for the National Book Award. Wings in the Wild received an International Latino Book Award Gold Medal, and The Surrender Treereceived a Newbery Honor. Other awards include Pura Belpré Medals, Walter Honors, Américas Awards, Jane Addams Award, PEN U.S.A., and the NSK Neustadt Prize. Margarita served as the national 2017-2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate. Her most recent picture book is Eloísa’s Musical Window, and her 2025 verse novel is Island Creatures.
Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island. She studied agronomy and botany along with creative writing, and now lives in central California with her entomologist husband and soccer playing Border Collie.
www.margaritaengle.com
Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island. She studied agronomy and botany along with creative writing, and now lives in central California with her entomologist husband and soccer playing Border Collie.
www.margaritaengle.com
Green Bush Spring
Green Bush Spring is a trio of Fresno friends who play traditional Celtic and Americana music, from Irish fiddle tune medleys to Western swing and bluegrass songs. Green Bush Spring is also the place where Fresno, California was founded in 1872. The band played all-Irish gigs in 2021-2022 and in the summer of 2022 expanded their American repertoire. The band has performed at Bluegrass in the Park, Twilight Thursday at the Clovis Botanical Gardens, at Campus Pointe, World Fiddle Day, the Elbow Room and for private parties. Band personnel includes Terry Barrett (fiddle/mandolin), Larry Cusick (fiddle/Irish flute and Uilleann pipes) and Karana Hattersley-Drayton (vocals/keyboard).