2004 Photo Tour

Havana Split, 1st Ed., April 1998. c.368p.  ISBN 1-55885-229-8 is published by Arte Público Press. 

Electric Grace: Still More Fiction by Washington Area Women

"Electric Grace is a marvel, a glorious humming party-line of voices. Bend your ear to the wire and have a listen. You won't be disappointed." -- Ann Downer, author of Hatching Matic and The Spellkey Trilogy.

Authors in this anthology: Teresa Bevin, Jody Lannen Brady, Michelle Brafman, Laura Brylawski-Miller, Maxine Clair, Brenda W. Clough, Merle Collins, Julie Corwin, Janet Crossen, Rosie Dempsey, Mary Katya Doroshenk, Cynthia Folcarelli, Barbara Goldberg, Corrine Zappia Gormont, T. Greenwood, Catherine Harnett, Jamie Holland, Susan Kellam, Eugenia SunHee Kim, Randi Gray Kristensen, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Sarah Grace McCandless, Faye Moskowitz, Barbara Mujica, Jessica Neely, Sarah Pleydell, Victoria Popdan, Joy Reges, Jessie Seigel, Debra Sequeira, Sheryl Stein, Amy Stolls, Mary L. Tabor, Julia Thomas, Sheila Walsh, Riggin Waugh, NC Weil, Mary-Sherman Willis, Robyn Kirby Wright, Hannah Zaheer, Anna Zeigler, Christy J. Zink.

Paperback: 460 pages
ISBN 0-931181-25-9

Dreams and Other Ailments
Sueños y otros achaques

A bilingual collection of short stories

ForeWord Magazine's
Bronze Award  Book of the Year 2001
  Fiction Translation  

Independent Publishers Award Finalist 2000   Multicultural Fiction  

A review of "Dreams..."from WomenWriters.net, South Africa.

"Dreams and Other Ailments is a doorway... to the magical, even fantastic, and yet it is grounded in a reality that has an edge. [It] takes the reader on journeys that transit between dimensions, juxtaposing the seen and the unseen, the mundane and the miraculous, the tragic and the hopeful, while maintaining a connection that runs like a line to her Cuban beginnings. Nonpolitical but with a message, irreligious yet full of spirit, the stories express themselves in many voices, conflating race, gender, age, rage, ecstasy, and resignation. Bevin's overriding mark of style is her humor that twists each character's fate with ironic promise...  An inspiration, an education, and a chance to enter multiple realities, Dreams and Other Ailments will lift your spirits as it makes you wonder if the spirits being lifted are other than your own. An important collection by a brilliant new writer."
--Dr. Lynne Greeley, author, literary critic, and professor of theater, University of Vermont

"This collection of short stories captures the reader's imagination from the first words of the first story, 'For many nights, I dreamt of dead people.' We are drawn in to the ordinary lives of ordinary people who by the time we finish the story has become extraordinary."

--Julian Gabriel Colado, Editor, WriteToday.com

Havana Split

"Bevin's spirited first novel tells of Lara Canedo, a Cuban who left her homeland for Spain as a child at her mother's insistence. Twenty years later, in 1991, Lara returns to Cuba to rediscover the family members she left behind and gain an understanding of her parents' ambiguous relationship. With this healing knowledge she unites her present with her past and comes to terms with her sexual identity. Bevin reveals an astonishingly refreshing ability to write a fictional account of a Cuban exile's life that is personal without being painfully passionate. Her sparkling prose portrays people from all sides of Cuban politics with dignity. This tale of self-discovery is highly recommended for all collections." --Carolyn Ellis Gonzalez, University of Texas at San Antonio Library.

"... Havana Split demonstrates a keen awareness of the Cuban exiles' haunted memories and their desire for reconciliation.  The novel's acuity is apparent in Bevin's vivid descriptions of Lara's pre- and post-revolutionary Cuban life--from her aunt's ritualistic 'blood red lipstick' kiss to the chaotic scenes in the Miami Airport.  Likewise, Bevin's bold decision to write a lesbian character provides important insight into Cuba's virulent strain of homophobia, resulting in the gay community's resourceful, yet troubling, response.... The novel thus dramatizes the revolution's personal devastation."-- Beatriz Valdés, Clark University.

"...A moving tale of one woman's search for the child she once was and and powerful affirmation that although you sometimes can go home again, airfare is not the only price you pay." --Margaria Fichtner, Miami Herald