This evening a friend of The CVAS, Michael Nava, is having an author lecture in Palm Springs.  Artist and co-gallery owner, Aaron Hansen, had a moment to sit down with Nava and talk a bit about his newest book, The City of Palaces: A Novel.

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Join us on Wednesday, March 19th for an Author Lecture with  Michael Nava, author of the popular Henry Rios series.  His newest book, to be released in April, is The City of Palaces: A Novel.  The City of Palaces is set in colonial Mexico. The lecture will begin at 6:30 p.m. in The Learning Center (TLC) of the Palm Springs Public LIbrary. This special lecture is presented in partnership with The Center.

Author Lecture: Michael Nava

Michael Nava is the author of an acclaimed series of seven crime novels featuring gay, Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. The Rios novels won six Lambda Literary awards and Nava was called by The New York Times, “one of our best.”  In 2001, he was awarded the Bill Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award in LGBT literature.  A native Californian and the grandson of Mexican immigrants, he divides his time between San Francisco and Palm Springs. – via palmspringsca.gov

Aaron Hansen: So Michael, what can you tell the Coachella Valley about yourself and what you have coming up on March 19th?

Michael Nava: I’m a novelist and my 8th novel has just been published.  It’s set in Mexico City around the time of the  Mexican Revolution of 1910 and I’ll be reading from it and talking about it at an event sponsored by the Palm Springs library and the LGBT center on March 19th.

Hansen:  Awesome, interesting era. What’s your inspiration for this novel?

Michael Nava:  My great grandparents came to California in 1920 as refugees from the revolution.  More than a million Mexicans crossed the border between 1910 and 1925 to get away from the violence but Americans know almost nothing about the revolution and how it affected both Mexico and the US. I wanted to tell this story both for Latino and white readers to give them an understanding of what is the native land for millions of us descendants of that first wave of immigrants.

Hansen:  That’s a good point.  To be honest, I think that’s the most I’ve learned about it all my years. (laughs)  I’m definitely going to have to pick up a copy of your book and start learning.

Final question Michael, what brings your story to the Coachella Valley, what is it about the desert that drew you here?

Michael Nava:   The next novel is this series is set in a desert, the Sonora desert that stretches from northern Mexico into Arizona, and spending time at our condo in the Coachella Valley helps me to imagine thast setting more clearly and in greater detail.   I remember the first time I went to Tuscon, which is in the Sonora desert, it was in May and I had a strange but powerful sense of being home.   I feel that in the Coachella Valley, too.  I think it must be genetic — I must come from desert people.

Hansen: Thank you, Michael, for taking the time to share your story with The Coachella Valley Art Scene.  Looking forward to your Author Lecture March 19th.

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ABOUT

The City of Palaces is the first of a quartet of historical novels based loosely on the early life of the gay, Mexican-born silent film star, Ramon Novarro.  Novelist Christopher Bram says about The City of Palaces:  “City of Palaces begins as the love story of two good people, a Catholic and an atheist, who find each other in the corrupt world of belle epoch Mexico City.  It grows into a magnificent epic about family, politics, art, revolution, and hope.  This is a masterly work of old-fashioned storytelling, rich and spacious and moving, a novel that deserves to be compared to The Leopard, Love in the Time of Cholera, and Doctor Zhivago, but with its own intimacy and grandeur. I fell in love with these people and did not want to say goodbye to them.”

Nava has also had a distinguished legal career,  having earned his law degree from Stanford University.  He can reached though his Facebook page, Michael Nava, Writer or his website.

Michael Nava is the author of several books including The Little Death (1986), Goldenboy(1988), Howtown (1990), The Hidden Law (1992), The Death of Friends (1996), The Burning Plain (1998), and Rag and Bone (2000).

– information via palmspringsca.gov

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EVENT INFORMATION:

Author Lecture: Michael Nava