Panel Discussion: Festival de la Palabra en Nueva York

Admission Fee: FREE for AS and QSSI Members; $10.00 for non-members.

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Four prominent writers from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean—Awilda Cáez (Puerto Rico), Angel Antonio Ruiz Laboy (Puerto Rico), Pedro Antonio Valdéz (Dominican Republic), and Anna Lidia Vega Serova (Cuba)—will engage in a discussion on currents and anticipated directions in Latin American literature. Moderated by Darío Henao (Colombia).

This event is part of the international Festival de Palabra. Launched in 2010 in San Juan and expanded to New York in 2011, the Festival is presented annually in both locations and features writers from throughout the continent in discussions, readings, and book presentations. The goals of the Festival de la Palabra are the internationalization of Puerto Rico and the promotion of reading as well as a better understanding of Puerto Ricans through literature.

Presented by the Americas Society, the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, and Festival de la Palabra. In Spanish.

Press Inquiries: Please contact Adriana La Rotta at alarotta@as-coa.org or 1-212-277-8384.

Awilda Cáez was born in 1972.  Her book of short stories, Adiós, Mariana y otras despedidas, was selected by El Nuevo Día as one of the best books of 2010. She was chosen by CARAS in 2011 as one of seven rising Puerto Rican artists.  She is co-founder of Editorial Pasadizo and has for the past five years been its editor-at-large.

Antonio Ruiz Labo, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1979, is a writer, poet, photographer, and cultural advisor. In 2009, he published his first book of poetry, Anzuelos y Carnadas. In 2011, he released El tiempo de los escarabajos. He runs a blog titled: www.angelantonio.blogspot.com.

Anna Lidia Vega Serova was born in Leningrad, Russia, in 1968 to a Cuban father and a Russian/Ukrainian mother. Soon after her birth, she returned to Cuba with her parents, lived there intermittently, and finally settled on the island. She is the author of the short-story collections Bad Painting (1997, Premio David), and Limpiando ventanas y espejos (2000); the novel Noche de ronda (2001), and a poetry collection, Retazos (de las hormigas) para los malos tiempos (2004).

Pedro Antonio Valdez, born in the Dominican Republic in 1968, is the author of the novels Bachata del ángel caido (2000) and Carnaval de Sodoma (2003). During a residency at Berkeley, he taught a creative writing seminar primarily directed to undergraduates interested in poetic expression including hip-hop.

Darío Henao Restrepo (moderator) is dean of humanities at the University del Valle, located in Cali, Colombia. He is the author of La Unidad Diversa (1997), as well as the editor of Jorge Isaacs, el creador en todas sus facetas (2006). His Colombia, entre la Ficción y la Historia, is forthcoming. As a journalist, Henao has interviewed writers including Jorge Amado, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Nélida Piñón, and Mario Vargas Llosa.

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