LAS MUSAS BOOKS
  • About
    • Mission and History
    • Community Standards
    • FAQ
  • Meet Las Musas
    • 2025 Releases
    • 2026 Releases
    • Alumni >
      • 2024 Releases
      • 2023 Releases
      • 2022 Releases
      • 2021 Releases
      • 2020 Releases
      • 2018 - 2019 Releases
  • Mentorship
    • Hermanas
    • Madrinas
  • BLOG
  • Contact
  • Podcast, Resources & more
    • Podcast
    • Latinx Kidlit Resources
    • Webinar Series

Happy Book Birthday to Wings in the Wild!

4/20/2023

 
Join us in celebrating WINGS IN THE WILD book birthday! 

​We sat down with award-winning Musa Margarita Engle to learn all about the inspiration behind this book. 


But first, a little bit about Wings in the Wild, this inspiring romantic contemporary novel-in-verse  that tells the story of two teens fighting for climate action and human rights:

Winged beings are meant to be free. And so are artists, but the Cuban government has criminalized any art that doesn’t meet their approval. Soleida and her parents protest this injustice with their secret sculpture garden of chained birds. Then a hurricane exposes the illegal art, and her parents are arrested.

Soleida escapes to Central America alone, joining the thousands of Cuban refugees stranded in Costa Rica while seeking asylum elsewhere. There she meets Dariel, a Cuban American boy whose enigmatic music enchants birds and animals—and Soleida.

Together they work to protect the environment and bring attention to the imprisoned artists in Cuba. Soon they discover that love isn’t about falling—it’s about soaring together to new heights. But wings can be fragile, and Soleida and Dariel come from different worlds. They are fighting for a better future—and the chance to be together.
​
Picture
What 3 words describe your book?
Love
Rewilding
Freedom
 
Where did you get the idea to write this particular story?
The love story and environmental aspects came from my own emotions and my scientific background as a botanist. The artistic freedom aspect emerged from repressive events in Cuba as well as increasing censorship in the U.S.
 
What message are you hoping readers will take away from this story?

I hope readers remember those three inspirations listed above: love, rewilding, freedom. In other words, no matter how difficult life is, people still fall in love, and as a result they find hope. No matter how devastated nature is, rewilding (restoration of a natural habitat) is still possible). No matter how severely an authoritarian government attempts to crush freedom of expression, we can still think for ourselves, and protect our own creativity.
 
What is the most important lesson you have learned as a writer?
My creative writing professor, Tomás Rivera, taught me to write from the heart without worrying about whether I will ever be published. Now, with more than 30 books already published, I still try to follow those instructions. I write because I have something to say. Anything beyond that comes later.
 
What comes next for you as an author?
In August I have a picture book called Water Day pending from Atheneum/Simon and Schuster, with beautiful cut paper illustrations by Olivia Sua. Water Day has an environmental theme about water deliveries to rooftop tanks in a Cuban town where running water is no longer available due to pollution, climate change, and deterioration of old pipes.
 
In 2024 my next young adult verse novel, Wild Dreamers, will be published by Atheneum/Simon and Schuster.  Like Wings in the Wild, it is a love story and an environmental one. Set in California, Wild Dreamers is about high school kids who help establish wildlife crossings to protect mountain lions from traffic.
 
Picture
​
Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, memoirs, and picture books, including The Surrender Tree, Enchanted Air, Drum Dream Girl, and Dancing Hands. Awards include a Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré, Golden Kite, Walter, Jane Addams, PEN U.S.A., and NSK Neustadt, among others. Margarita served as the national 2017-2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate.  She is a three-time U.S. nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Book Award. 
Her most recent books are Rima’s Rebellion, Singing With Elephants, and Destiny Finds Her Way. Her next young adult verse novel isWings in the Wild, and her next picture book is Water Day.
​
​
Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island.  She studied agronomy and botany along with creative writing, and now lives in central California with her husband.

www.margaritaengle.com
Facebook: Margarita Engle
Twitter: @margaritapoet
Instagram: @engle.margarita
​

BUY NOW

Comments are closed.

    Las Musas Speak

    Welcome to our blog!  

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018

    Categories

    All
    Activism
    Book Birthday
    Chapter Book
    Cover Reveal
    Gift Guide
    Hermanas
    Madrinas
    Middle Grade
    Personal Essay
    Picture Book
    Reading Lists
    Rom-Com
    Webinar Series
    YA
    Young Adult

    RSS Feed

© COPYRIGHT 2021 . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • About
    • Mission and History
    • Community Standards
    • FAQ
  • Meet Las Musas
    • 2025 Releases
    • 2026 Releases
    • Alumni >
      • 2024 Releases
      • 2023 Releases
      • 2022 Releases
      • 2021 Releases
      • 2020 Releases
      • 2018 - 2019 Releases
  • Mentorship
    • Hermanas
    • Madrinas
  • BLOG
  • Contact
  • Podcast, Resources & more
    • Podcast
    • Latinx Kidlit Resources
    • Webinar Series