International Writers Symposium: Giannina Braschi & Daniel Alacron at Hofstra

To celebrate the launch of a new MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish, Hofstra University is presenting a daylong writing and literature symposium on Thursday, November 15, featuring celebrated authors from the US, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Venezuela. The writers will read their works in bilingual format and participate in panels about Spanish literature and translation.  Writers include: Daniel Alarcón, Giannina Braschi, Heather Cleary, Lina Meruane, Fernando Operé, Cristina Rivera Garza, and Fernando Valverde.

The symposium will be held 9:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. at the Lowenfeld Conference and Exhibition Hall, 10th floor, Axinn Library, South Campus. Registration is free and open to the public. For more information call the Hofstra Cultural Center at (516) 463-5669.

Symposium organizers: Álvaro Enrigue, Justin Colón-Rabinowitz, Valeria Luiselli, and Miguel-Ángel Zapata.

More about the keynote guests:

Daniel Alarcón is the host of Radio Ambulante, an award-winning Spanish-language podcast distributed by NPR.  Born in Lima, Peru, Alarcón studied Creative Writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop.  Early in his career, he wrote for Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker, and produced his first radio documentary for the BBC in 2008 on Andean migration to Lima. His books include War by Candlelight, named a 2007 Best Novel of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post.  He is a recipient of a Lannan Literary Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Fulbright Fellowship.

One of the most revolutionary voices in Latin American literature today, Giannina Braschi is the author of the postmodern poetry epic Empire of Dreams, the Spanglish classic novel Yo-Yo Boing! and the dramatic work United States of Banana.  Her work has been translated by other artists into a host of genres, spanning theater play, comic book, photography book, videos, paintings, sculpture, and puppetry.

FREE