In this episode of Fully Lit, recorded live at the Addison Road Writers’ Festival, we explore the richness and diversity of contemporary Latin American literature.
Writer Yumna Kassab joins Uruguayan author and translator Rosario Lázaro Igoa in conversation with literary translator Chris Andrews to discuss the writers, genres and ideas shaping Latin American literature today.
Moving beyond the literary Boom of the 1960s and 70s, they reflect on the work of contemporary writers including Mariana Enríquez, Samanta Schweblin, Guadalupe Nettel and Nona Fernández, and consider the growing visibility of women writers in translation.
The conversation ranges across horror, short fiction, essays and crónicas, while also exploring the enduring influence of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Clarice Lispector, Felisberto Hernández and Horacio Quiroga. Along the way, they discuss translation, experimentation, literary form and what makes Latin American literature so exciting for readers and writers alike.
Voices
Yumna Kassab is a writer whose fiction explores memory, migration, identity and the complexities of human connection.
Rosario Lázaro Igoa is a Uruguayan, novelist, essayist, and literary translator.
Chris Andrews is a translator, scholar and researcher in twentieth and twenty-first century Hispanic and francophone literatures.
Credits
This episode of Fully Lit was recorded at the Addi Road Writers’ Festival on Gadigal land in Sydney.
Fully Lit is brought to you by Impact Studios at UTS, the Sydney Review of Books, and the UTS Writing and Publishing Program, and is produced by Regina Botros.
Executive Producers: Sarah Gilbert and James Jiang.
Recorded & Mixed by Maksim Voloshin-Cleary.
Further Reading
The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández
The Body Where I Was Born by Guadalupe Nettel
19 Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica
Empty Words by Mario Levrero
A Last Supper of Queer Apostles by Pedro Lemebel
The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges and Margarita Guerrero
