The authors and panelists of the Bronx Book Festival responded to personal questions about their lives, the writing process, and current literary inspirations. To see their panels and hear more about their books, RSVP for the Bronx Book Festival below.

ANN DÁVILA CARDINAL

AUTHOR OF CATEGORY FIVE

Why did you become an author?

Originally? To document my family stories so my son wouldn't lose touch with where he comes with, with his heritage. My mother was already gone by the time he was born, and I wanted to give him a sense of who she was.

 What are you reading right now?

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix.

 Have you ever been to the Bronx? If so, what's a favorite memory you have? If not, what do you know or think about the Bronx?

I grew up on the upper-upper west side of Manhattan, so we often went to the Bronx on trips when I was a kid. The Botanical Gardens, the Zoo, the best Puerto Rican food. My mother was an architect who worked on design of many buildings in the borough. Now, living in Vermont, i find that I have have a dozen friends here are originally from there, and I've decided that the coolest people are from The Bronx.

 What is a quote you live by?

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, to all bravely await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.” ― William Henry Channing