kathleenalcala.com   Serena dreamed that night of Hindu gods like the ones in the posters in Devi's kitchen. They seemed to have a cruel streak, even with their benign smiles. In the dream, the gods and goddesses, some blue-skinned, others multi-armed, bare-breasted, seemed to be singing and dancing. What was that word Devi used? Bollywood, from the film industry in Bombay. Yes, Serena seemed to be watching a Bollywood production of the gods. During all of this, she was trying to pick up her chocolate shake, even scraping up a part of it that had spilled on the ground, like dark blood. In the morning, she tried to remember what the gods had been singing, so she could tell Devi, ask what it meant. But all she could remember, over her first cup of coffee, was the way their mouths and eyes moved, like separate beings from the gods themselves. From the short story, Illumination Kathleen Alcalá kathleenalcala.com Los Nortenos http://www.nwartist.org Chronicle Books http://www.chronbooks.com Kathleen Alcalá has always been surrounded by stories. Her mother was born in Durango, Durango, Mexico, and her father in San Julian, Jalisco. Her mother's ancestors, hidden Jews and Opata Indians, were the basis for her first two novels, Spirits of the Ordinary and The Flower in the Skull. Kathleen was born in Compton, California and grew up in San Bernardino. She has two older sisters. Every summer, the family spent two weeks in Chihuahua, Mexico, with her cousins. Here she came to know about the Taruhamara Indians, cheap fireworks, and great food. Kathleen received a degree in Human Language from Stanford University in 1976 and went to work in Democratic politics and public broadcasting. Kathleen and her husband helped start a public radio station in Paonia, Colorado before moving to Seattle in 1983, where she enrolled in the graduate Creative Writing program at the University of Washington. She began publishing short stories, which led to her first book, Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist. She is married and has one son. Her books include: Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist, a collection of short stories from Calyx Books, Spirits of the Ordinary , a tale of Casas Grandes, concerning the Carabajal family in Saltillo, our secret desires, and hidden identities, The Flower in the Skull, a story of family that transcends time, exile, and even death set in Sonora, Nogales and Tucson, and Treasures in Heaven, a story of love, betrayal, and the feminist movement in Mexico City during the Porfírian era. She is also a co-founder of The Raven Chronicles, and on the board of The Seattle Review. A member of Los Norteños, Kathleen lives and works in the Northwest