Celebrating international authors and discovering writers from different cultures is one of the many highlights of the Festival, and this year we delve into works from Latin American writers. Each offers fascinating, heady insight into the lives of women. Carmen Boullosa is one of Mexico’s leading novelists, poets, and playwrights. The Book of Eve tells the story of the original woman—and the fall of man—from her perspective. Helen Cova was born and raised in Venezuela and now resides in Iceland. Autosarcophagy – To Eat Oneself fearlessly delves into subjects such as child mistreatment, motherhood, and anxiety in precise short stories. Beatriz Hausner, who, as a teenager, moved to Canada from Chile, reawakens the legacy of a fourth-century Byzantine mathematician and philosopher who, against convention, is also a woman in She Who Lies Above. Moderated by Carmen Rodríguez.

Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre Society.

Event Participants:

Carmen Boullosa

CARMEN BOULLOSA is one of Mexico's leading novelists, poets, and playwrights. She has published over a dozen novels, three of which have been published by Deep Vellum in English translation. Boullosa has received numerous prizes and honors, including a Guggenheim fellowship. Also a poet, playwright, essayist, and cultural critic, Boullosa is a Distinguished Lecturer at City College of New York, and her books have been translated into Italian, Dutch, German, French, Portuguese, Chinese, and Russian. Other novels translated into English include Before (tr. Peter Bush, Deep Vellum, 2016), Heavens On Earth (tr. Shelby Vincent, Deep Vellum, 2017) and The Book of Anna (tr. Samantha Schnee, Coffee House Press, 2020).

Helen Cova

HELEN COVA is a Venezuelan writer in Iceland. Author of Autosarcophagy: To Eat Oneself and the Snulli series, her work has been published in journals including Ós - The Journal, Timarít mál og menningar, Skáldreki and The Polaris trilogy, an anthology meant to arrive on a NASA flight at the Moon’s South Pole.

Beatriz Hausner

BEATRIZ HAUSNER was born in Chile and immigrated to Canada when she was a teenager. She has published many books, including the poetry collections Enter the Raccoon, Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart and She Who Lies Above. Her work has been translated into several languages, including her native Spanish, French, Dutch, and Greek. Hausner is recognized for her work as a historian and translator of Latin American surrealism. She was a founding publisher of Quattro Books. She lives Toronto.

Carmen Rodríguez

CARMEN RODRÍGUEZ is a bilingual (Spanish and English), Chilean-Canadian writer and educator. She is the author of Guerra Prolongada/Protracted War, a volume of poetry; De cuerpo entero/and a body to remember with, a collection of short stories; and the novels Retribution and Atacama. Rodríguez lives in Vancouver.