CantoMundo in The Austin Chronicle!

When Deborah Paredez was a graduate student, she lived in Chicago's north side, directly across the street from a fire station and a large billboard advertising liquor. "The sights and sounds of emergency were all around," she recalled during a recent interview at the University of Texas Club in Austin. Because she is a writer, she often found herself wondering, instead of a liquor ad, "How would my life be different if there was a poem on that billboard?"