Valeria Luiselli

Last updated

Valeria Luiselli
Hayfestival-2016-Valeria-Luiselli-stage.jpg
Luiselli at the 2016 Hay Festival
Born (1983-08-16) August 16, 1983 (age 41)
Mexico City, Mexico
OccupationAuthor
Education National Autonomous University of Mexico (BA)
Columbia University (PhD)
Period2013–present
Website
www.valerialuiselli.com

Valeria Luiselli (born August 16, 1983) is a Mexican-American author. [1] She is the author of the book of essays Sidewalks and the novel Faces in the Crowd , which won the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Luiselli's 2015 novel The Story of My Teeth was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Best Translated Book Award, and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Fiction, and she was awarded the Premio Metropolis Azul in Montreal, Quebec. Luiselli's books have been translated into more than 20 languages, with her work appearing in publications including, The New York Times , Granta , McSweeney's , and The New Yorker . Her book Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions [2] was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism. [3] Luiselli's 2019 novel, Lost Children Archive won the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. [4] [5] [6]

Contents

In 2014, Luiselli was the recipient of the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35" award. In 2019, she won a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a MacArthur "Genius Grant". [7] In 2020, the Vilcek Foundation awarded her a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature [8] and the Folio Prize. [9]

Luiselli is a member of the Inter-American Dialogue.

Career

Luiselli in 2015 Valeria Luiselli - 2015 National Book Festival (3).JPG
Luiselli in 2015

After earning a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Luiselli moved to New York City to dance. She eventually studied comparative literature at Columbia University, where she completed a Ph.D. [10] She teaches literature and creative writing at Bard College, collaborates as a writer with a number of art galleries, and has worked as a librettist for the New York City Ballet. [11] She served as a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 2016. [12]

Several of Luiselli's books are based on real-world experiences. The Story of My Teeth (2015) was first written in serial for workers in a Jumex juice factory in Mexico as part of a commission from Galería Jumex. [1] Her nonfiction work Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions (2017) is based on her experiences volunteering as an interpreter for young Central American migrants seeking legal status in the United States. [13] The book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism in 2017. [14] Her work with asylum-seeking children from Latin America also informs the central theme in her 2019 novel Lost Children Archive . [14]

Personal life

Luiselli was born in Mexico City, and moved to Madison, Wisconsin, with her family at the age of two. [14] Her father's work in NGOs and later as a diplomat moved the family to Costa Rica, South Korea, and South Africa. [14] After her parents separated, she moved to Mexico City with her mother at the age of 16. [15] Luiselli attended UWC Mahindra College in India and then returned to Mexico to attend university. She enrolled in the National Autonomous University of Mexico to study philosophy, and then lived in Spain and France. [15]

Luiselli first came to New York to study contemporary dance and worked as an intern at the United Nations, [15] and later studied a PhD in Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She currently lives in the Bronx with her family.

Political involvement

Luiselli started a literacy program for girls in a detention center in upstate New York that focuses on creative writing. [14] Luiselli is passionate about researching and writing about mass incarceration in the United States, with a focus on detention centers. She is working on a performance piece with the poet Natalie Diaz related to mass incarceration and violence against women. [14]

Luiselli has been interested in writing about and working to improve the plight of asylum-seeking children from Latin America, a theme that is present in her 2020 novel, Lost Children Archive. [14] She began writing Lost Children Archive in 2014 "as a loudspeaker for all of [her] political rage" after having served as a court translator for children from Latin America involved in the migration crisis. [14] The creation of this book was also a reaction to her daughter working to understand the migration crisis for herself. Before completing Lost Children Archive in 2019, Luiselli published Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions that uses the format of the questions she used in the court when interviewing the children, and includes her own experience with applying for a green card. The time spent writing the essay allowed her to write Lost Children Archive with "more open questions and open ends instead of political stances that are too loud and obvious by themselves". [14]

Luiselli supports a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, including publishers and literary festivals. She was an original signatory of the manifesto "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions". [16]

Works

Luiselli at PEN America/Free Expression Literature, May 2014 Valeria Luiselli 2014.jpg
Luiselli at PEN America/Free Expression Literature, May 2014

Sidewalks

Sidewalks is Luiselli's debut book of essays, in which she explores themes of motion, travel, transition, and reflection. [17]

Faces in the Crowd (Los ingrávidos)

Faces in the Crowd (2011) is a triptych that follows the perspectives of the narrator, a young mother living and working as a translator in New York, the protagonist of that mother's semi-autobiographical novel, and Gilberto Owen, a 20th-century Mexican poet. [18] These three perspectives are woven together throughout the story.

The Story of My Teeth

Luiselli's second novel, The Story of My Teeth , tells the story of Gustavo (Highway) Sánchez Sánchez, an auctioneer who claims to sell the teeth of authors and historical figures, and uses the money to purchase the supposed teeth of Marilyn Monroe to replace his own. [19] The Story of My Teeth was written in chapters and distributed to the workers of a juice factory in Mexico. The workers read the chapters out loud and provided comments on them, which Luiselli recorded and took into consideration as she wrote the next chapter. [18]

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions

In this book, Luiselli draws from her experience working as an interpreter for Central American child migrants. [13] The book links the experiences of migrant children risking their lives to come to the United States to Luiselli's own experiences of getting a green card and staying here with her family. [13]

Lost Children Archive (Desierto sonoro)

Her fifth book, this is the first to be written in English. She said she used it as a loudspeaker for all of her political rage regarding the migration crisis. Lost Children Archive follows a mother, father, and their two children on their journey driving from New York to Arizona in the heat of summer. On the way, they learn about the immigration crisis and learn that they may soon be in a crisis of their own. [20]

Awards and recognition

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Erdrich</span> Native American author in Minnesota (born 1954)

Karen Louise Erdrich is a Native American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota, a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people.

Canadian literature is written in several languages including English, French, and to some degree various Indigenous languages. It is often divided into French- and English-language literatures, which are rooted in the literary traditions of France and Britain, respectively. The earliest Canadian narratives were of travel and exploration.

Anne Patricia Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist, and professor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Creative nonfiction</span> Genre of writing

Creative nonfiction is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other non-fiction, such as academic or technical writing or journalism, which are also rooted in accurate fact though not written to entertain based on prose style. Many writers view creative nonfiction as overlapping with the essay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zadie Smith</span> British writer (born 1975)

Zadie Smith is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, White Teeth (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She became a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University in September 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwidge Danticat</span> Haitian-American writer (born 1969)

Edwidge Danticat is a Haitian-American novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, was published in 1994 and went on to become an Oprah's Book Club selection. Danticat has since written or edited several books and has been the recipient of many awards and honors. As of the fall of 2023, she will be the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magda Szabó</span> Hungarian novelist

Magda Szabó was a Hungarian novelist. Doctor of philology, she also wrote dramas, essays, studies, memoirs, poetry and children's literature. She was a founding member of the Digital Literary Academy, an online digital repository of Hungarian literature. She is the most translated Hungarian author, with publications in 42 countries and over 30 languages.

Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo is a Filipina fictionist, critic and pioneering writer of creative nonfiction. She is currently Professor Emeritus of English & Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman and Director of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies. She was given the S.E. Write Award for Literature in 2020 by the Royal Family of Thailand.

The Prêmio Jabuti is the most traditional literary award in Brazil, given by the Brazilian Book Chamber (CBL). It was conceived by Edgard Cavalheiro in 1959 when he presided over the CBL, with the interest of rewarding authors, editors, illustrators, graphics and booksellers who stood out each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laila Lalami</span> Moroccan-American writer, and professor (born 1968)

Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor. After earning her licence ès lettres degree in Morocco, she received a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she earned an MA in linguistics.

Anuradha Roy is an Indian novelist, journalist and editor. She has written five novels: An Atlas of Impossible Longing (2008), The Folded Earth (2011), Sleeping on Jupiter (2015), All the Lives We Never Lived (2018), and The Earthspinner (2021).

TheWriters' Prize, previously known as the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014–2015. Starting in 2017, the sponsor was Rathbone Investment Management. At the 2023 award ceremony, it was announced that the prize was looking for new sponsorship as Rathbones would be ending their support. In November 2023, having failed to secure a replacement sponsor, the award's governing body announced its rebrand as The Writers' Prize.

Diane Simmons is an American author. She won the Oregon Book Award in for her novel Dreams Like Thunder, and the Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction for Little America. She teaches English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She published a biography of Caribbean author Jamaica Kincaid, which was based on her doctoral dissertation at the City University of New York.

Carrie Mac is a Canadian author of more than a dozen novels for Young Adults, both contemporary and speculative. Her latest work is the literary novel, LAST WINTER, due out from Random House Canada in early 2023. She also writes literary short fiction, and creative non-fiction. Some of her accolades include a CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize, the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, and the Arthur Ellis Award, as well as various other awards and recognitions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yaa Gyasi</span> Ghanaian-American novelist (born 1989)

Yaa Gyasi is a Ghanaian American novelist. Her work, most notably her 2016 debut novel Homegoing and her 2020 novel Transcendent Kingdom, features themes of lineage, generational trauma, and Black and African identities. At the age of 26, Gyasi won the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for Best First Book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the National Book Foundation's "5 under 35" honors for 2016 and the 2017 American Book Award. She was awarded a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature in 2020. As of 2019, Gyasi lives in Brooklyn, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jaquira Díaz</span> Puerto Rican writer

Jaquira Díaz is a Puerto Rican fiction writer, essayist, journalist, cultural critic, and professor. She is the author of Ordinary Girls, which received a Whiting Award in Nonfiction, a Florida Book Awards Gold Medal, was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Finalist. She has written for The Atlantic, Time (magazine), The Best American Essays, Tin House, The Sun, The Fader, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Longreads, and other places. She was an editor at theKenyon Reviewand a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.In 2022, she held the Mina Hohenberg Darden Chair in Creative Writing at Old Dominion University's MFA program and a Pabst Endowed Chair for Master Writers at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She has taught creative writing at Colorado State University's MFA program, Randolph College's low-residency MFA program, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Kenyon College. Díaz lives in New York with her spouse, British writer Lars Horn, and is an Assistant Professor of Writing at Columbia University.

<i>Faces in the Crowd</i> (novel) 2011 novel by Valeria Luiselli

Faces in the Crowd is a 2011 novel by Mexican author Valeria Luiselli, originally under the title Los ingrávidos. Christina MacSweeney's English translation was published by Coffee House Press in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fernanda Melchor</span> Mexican novelist

Fernanda Melchor is a Mexican writer best known for her novel Hurricane Season for which she won the 2019 Anna Seghers Prize and a place on the shortlist for the 2020 International Booker Prize.

<i>The Story of My Teeth</i> 2013 novel by Valeria Luiselli

The Story of My Teeth(La historia de mis dientes) is a 2013 Spanish-language novel by Valeria Luiselli, translated into English in 2015 by Christina MacSweeney. The novel tells the story of Gustavo "Highway" Sánchez Sánchez, an auctioneer in Mexico City who auctions off various historical and literary figures' teeth. Originally commissioned as an exhibition catalog for Galería Jumex, the novel was written in collaboration with workers at a Jumex factory in Ecatepec. Luiselli would submit chapters for lectores to read to the factory workers, who would then send recordings of their discussions back to Luiselli. The English-language edition also features a chapter written by Luiselli's translator MacSweeney. The novel was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction.

<i>Lost Children Archive</i> 2019 novel by Valeria Luiselli

Lost Children Archive is a 2019 novel by writer Valeria Luiselli. Luiselli was in part inspired by the ongoing American policy of separating children from their parents at the Mexico–United States border. The novel is the first book Luiselli wrote in English.

References

  1. 1 2 Oyler, Lauren (September 15, 2015). "Valeria Luiselli: The Novelist All Your Smart Friends Are Talking About". Broadly.vice.com. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  2. "Mexican Writer Valeria Luiselli on Child Refugees & Rethinking the Language Around Immigration". Democracynow.org. April 18, 2017. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
  3. "Tell Me How It Ends". Coffee House Press. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  4. "Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction & Nonfiction | Awards & Grants". www.ala.org. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  5. SZALUSKY (January 26, 2020). "'Lost Children Archive,' 'Midnight in Chernobyl,' receive 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction". News and Press Center. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  6. "2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal Winners Announced". American Libraries Magazine. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  7. 1 2 Schuessler, Jennifer (September 25, 2019). "MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Winners for 2019: The Full List". The New York Times. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  8. 1 2 "Valeria Luiselli". Vilcek Foundation. Retrieved February 3, 2020.
  9. 1 2 "Rathbones Folio Prize". March 23, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  10. "Recent Dissertations". Columbia.edu. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  11. Freedman, Geraldine (July 3, 2010). "NYCB Preview: Ginastera's music inspired Wheeldon to create 'Estancia'". The Daily Gazette. Retrieved August 27, 2017.
  12. "All Neustadt Prize Jurors (1970 – present)". The Neustadt Prize. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  13. 1 2 3 Powers, John (April 6, 2017). "'Tell Me How It Ends' Offers A Moving, Humane Portrait Of Child Migrants". NPR. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 León, Concepción de (February 7, 2019). "Valeria Luiselli, at Home in Two Worlds". The New York Times. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  15. 1 2 3 4 "2018 American Book Awards". The Before Columbus Foundation. August 13, 2018.
  16. "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions" . Retrieved October 29, 2024.
  17. Sidewalks. Coffee House Press. April 21, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2019 via www.amazon.com.
  18. 1 2 "Smashing Snow Globes: A Writer On Essays, Novels And Translation". NPR. December 21, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  19. Krusoe, Jim (September 11, 2015). "'The Story of My Teeth,' by Valeria Luiselli". The New York Times. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  20. "Valeria Luiselli". NPR. Retrieved May 14, 2019.
  21. "Lost Children Archive – DUBLIN Literary Award" . Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  22. "RSL International Writers | 2023 International Writers". Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved December 3, 2023.

Further reading