Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: A Reading & Book Signing

Red Salmon Arts Presents

Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: A Reading & Book Signing with David Bowles

The stories in Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky trace the history of the world from its beginnings in the dreams of the dual god Ometeotl, to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in Mexico and the fall of the great city Tenochtitlan. In the course of that history we learn about the Creator Twins, Feathered Serpent, and Dark Heart of Sky, and how they built the world on a leviathan’s back; of the shape-shifting nahualli; and the aluxes—elfish beings known to help out the occasional wanderer. And finally, we read Aztec tales about the arrival of the blonde strangers from across the sea, the strangers who seek to upend the rule of Motecuhzoma and destroy the very stories we are reading.

David Bowles stitches together the fragmented mythology of pre-Colombian Mexico into an exciting, unified narrative in the tradition of William Buck’s Ramayana, Robert Fagles’ Iliad, and Neil Gaiman’s Norse Myths. Readers of Norse and Greek mythologies will delight in this rich retelling of stories less explored.

Legends and myths captured David Bowles’ imagination as a young Latino reader. He was fascinated with epics like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Despite growing up on the United States/Mexico border, he had never read a single Aztec or Mayan myth until he was in college. This experience inspired him to reconnect with that forgotten past. Several of his previous books have incorporated themes from ancient Mexican myths.

Red Salmon Arts (casa de Resistencia Books) is a Native American/Chican@/x/Latin@/x-based cultural arts organization with a history of working within indigenous communities of Austin since 1983.

Resistencia Bookstore, Casa de Red Salmon Arts, is a neighborhood center for aspiring writers, providing quality literature to Austin communities since 1983. Specializing in indigenous, Native American, Chican@/x-Mexican@/x, Latin@, African American, queer, feminist, and children’s bilingual literature.

This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.

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