Latino Research Center director Emma Sepulveda is holding a series of book signings for her new book, “Do you Hear my Accent When I Write?: The Voice of a Latina Immigrant,” a collection of her opinion columns in the Reno Gazette Journal from the past 10 years, as well as some other readers’ responses. The first book signing is on Thursday, Feb. 7 at 5 p.m. in the ASUN bookstore in the Joe Crowley Student Union.

The following book signing will be on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. at Sundance Bookstore. Another book signing is scheduled to take place at Borders.

The columns included in “Do you Hear my Accent When I Write?” cover a wide variety of topics, from political issues to matters of concern to the Latino community locally and nationwide.

Sepulveda hopes her interpretations of certain issues and events presented in the book can enlighten readers about her perspective on Latino topics and other subjects. She hopes the events cause readers to look at issues from the perspective of a Latina immigrant.

“When I read the book now, it is very interesting to see how people react to an immigrant [writing] in the newspaper,” Sepulveda said. “I wrote in the introduction what it is like to be a Latina immigrant columnist. Just by putting voice out there, I elicit a lot of reactions.”

She admits that not all the readers’ responses in the book were positive, though she marvels at the discourse that has taken place as a result of the columns.

“I gave my opinion and the readers gave theirs,” Sepulveda said. “It’s a dialogue with people that we often don’t have. I’ve learned through that dialogue and I hope other people have learned from this dialogue, too.”

“Do you Hear my Accent When I Write?” was published by the Black Rock Press in 2007. Sepulveda is also Foundation Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, was recently inducted into the Nevada Writer’s Hall of Fame, and continues to write as a columnist for the Reno Gazette Journal.