Reyna Grande to be Timberland Reads Together featured author

Award-winning author Reyna Grande has been selected as the featured author for this year’s Timberland Reads Together community reading program.

Grande, a Mexican immigrant, will visit five Timberland Regional Library locations, including two in Thurston County, from Oct. 25-28, the library system wrote in a release. Three of her presentations will be done in Spanish.

Grande’s most recent work, “The Distance Between Us” (published in 2012), is a memoir detailing her life before and after immigrating to the United States from Mexico.

Her father left for the U.S. to find work when Grande was 2 years old, the release says. Her mother left Mexico to join her father two years later, leaving Grande and her siblings behind. Grande entered the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant in 1985, when she was 9, to live with her father.

She and her family members became citizens through the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. Grande recognizes the relevance of her story in today’s immigration climate, the release says.

Grande teaches creative writing for the University of California at Los Angeles Extension Service, and speaks at educational establishments across the nation. Grande’s two other published works are novels, “Across a Hundred Mountains” (2006) and “Dancing with Butterflies” (2009).

Copies of Grande’s books are available to borrow from local Timberland locations. Formats include print in both English and Spanish, eBook, and audiobook. “The Distance Between Us” also includes a young reader’s edition in print and eBook.

Three of her programs, titled “No More Distance,” will be presented completely in Spanish, in which she will speak about immigration through the lens of her personal history. She will share how reading and writing can help heal wounds resulting from the trauma of immigration, the library system’s release says.

In her English programs, “Crossing Borders,” Grande will discuss the complexities of immigration and how it affects immigrants and their families, the release says.

Grande’s books will be available for purchase and signings at the events. Here is a full schedule of her appearances:

▪  Oct. 25: 6-7 p.m., Aberdeen Timberland Library (presented in Spanish)

▪  Oct. 26: 7-9 p.m., Washington Center for the Performing Arts, Olympia

▪  Oct. 27: 7-8:30 p.m., Saint Martin’s Norman Worthington Conference Center, Lacey (presented in Spanish)

▪  Oct. 28: 1-2 p.m., Centralia Timberland Library (presented in Spanish)

▪  Oct. 28: 4-5:30 p.m., Chehalis Timberland Library.

Pick up a Timberland Reads Together event guide at any local Timberland library for all the events, related reading suggestions, and online resources. Or go to http://www.trl.org/ProgramsResources/Pages/TRT17/TRT.aspx.

This story was originally published September 28, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Reyna Grande to be Timberland Reads Together featured author."