Let Their Spirits Dance: A Novel

Stella Pope Duarte

Eki 2009 · Harper Collins

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“Stella Pope Duarte is a writer who will not be stopped. Her story takes its power from a larger love, and the quest here is as pressing as any I’ve read. This is a novel that looks at a rocky, uncertain time, with the intention of helping. It does."   — Ron Carlson, author of The Hotel Eden and At the Jim Bridge

An inspiring novel about family, the memories of war, and a woman who valiantly rallies herself and those she loves into reconciling with the past

Stella Pope Duarte’s strong and musical voice is reminiscent of Laura Esquivel and Alice Hoffman. Let Their Spirits Dance is a moving, spirited story of a family who takes a trip to the Vietnam Memorial thirty years after the war, and whose trip evolves into a spiritual journey, towards healing and redemption.

Teresa Ramirez, is a schoolteacher from El Cielito in Arizona. Still haunted by the death of her brother Jesse in the Vietnam War. Her mother cherishes the memory of her son’s words to her as he boarded the plane for Vietnam, when he told her she would hear his voice again. When Teresa’s ailing mother sees a photograph of the Vietnam War Memorial, she makes a vow to touch his name on the Wall, and this begins a journey that changes the lives of Teresa and her family forever.

In this powerfully evocative novel, Pope Duarte connects family, friends, and an entire nation with the names on the Wall, honoring the men and women who served in Vietnam as well as those who watched and waited, but never forgot.

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Stella Pope Duarte began her literary career in 1995 after she had a dream in which her deceased father related to her that her destiny was to become a writer. Her first collection of short stories, Fragile Night, (Bilingual Review Press, 1997) won a creative writing fellowship from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and was named a candidate for the prestigious, Pen West Fiction Award. In 2001 Ms. Duarte was awarded a second creative writing fellowship for her current novel, Let Their Spirits Dance. (HarperCollins, 2002). HarperCollins has described Duarte as a "major, new literary voice in America." Ms. Duarte’s work has won awards and honors nationwide, including a nomination for the Pushcart Prize in Literature. Let Their Spirits Dance is on the Book Sense List, and was awarded the AZ Highways Fiction Award for 2003, and nominated as a ONEBOOKAz in 2004. Ms. Duarte won the 2003 "Excellence in Latino Arts & Culture," Award, presented by Valle del Sol. In 2004, she received the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Award for an excerpt from her current work in progress, The Women of Juárez., and in 2005 she was awarded the "Outstanding Alumni of the Year," by the American Association of Community Colleges. She is a highly sought-after inspirational speaker for audiences of all ages, on topics related to her work, as well as on issues related to: women’s rights, culture, diversity, leadership, education, literacy, Chicano/Latino history, writing, and storytelling. Ms. Duarte was born and raised in la Sonorita barrio in South Phoenix.