SPLALit - Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Literature and Culture

José Saramago - The Stone Raft

2013-01-23T06:06:00.001-08:00

In "A Jangada de Pedra" (The Stone Raft) the Portuguese writer José Saramago imagines Iberia literally breaking off from the rest of Europe.Read More

Santiago Gamboa - Plegarias nocturnas

2013-01-02T01:24:00.001-08:00

Santiago Gamboa's "Plegarias nocturnas" has Colombia and its political and social reality in the center of the plot.Read More

New Ildefonso Falcones novel

2012-10-10T05:53:00.001-07:00

Random House reported Wednesday that Ildefonso Falcones will publish a new historical novel during the first quarter of 2013, the novel his to be published in Castilian by Grijalbo and Catalan by Rosa dels Vents.Read More

Early Mexican photojournalism in Mexico City Museum

2012-10-09T03:27:00.001-07:00

More than eleven thousand photographs remained stored in the family closet of Manuel Ramos, one of the pioneers of Mexican photojournalism. It took almost half a century for the Ramos files to be brought to light. Part of this files, that show the advancement of the Mexican Revolution, the centenary celebrations of Independence, the Cristero War and the modern architecture of the city, will be

Interview with Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira

2012-10-09T02:40:00.001-07:00

Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira talks about the creation of his work, "Gourd," that bursts from a wall in MOCA's newly completed uptown home. Read More

Isabel Allende receives Denmark's top literary award

2012-10-09T01:36:00.001-07:00

Chilean novelist Isabel Allende receives the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award from Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik.Read More

Interrupted innocence

2012-10-08T10:17:00.001-07:00

Repression, discipline and religion are the cornerstones of "Las poseídas", the audacious new novel from Betina Gonzalez.Read More

“Festival de la palabra” literary festival celebrates Spanish language

2012-10-08T07:28:00.001-07:00

When acclaimed writers, poets and journalists from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain get together for a literary festival, says Puerto Rican writer Mayra Santos-Febres, the conversation is not necessarily about particular books or essays.Read More

Mexican Novelist Daniel Krauze Wins Literature Prize

2012-10-08T07:02:00.001-07:00

The novel "Dias de Lava" (Days of Lava) by Mexican writer Daniel Krauze was honored in the inaugural edition of the Nuevas Letras Prize, awarded by the Planeta publishing corporation and the Sanborns Group.Read More

Peruvian poet Antonio Cisneros died

2012-10-08T03:10:00.001-07:00

The Peruvian poet Antonio Cisneros died Saturday at age 69. Cisneros, also a journalist, screenwriter and professor, was awarded the Pablo Neruda Poetry Ibero-American award in 2010.He was one of the most important Latin American poets, and received, in 1968, with his poem 'Canto ceremonial contra un oso hormiguero' the Casa de Las Americas prize, which catapulted him to international

Premio Grijalbo de Novela 2012

2012-10-01T06:18:00.001-07:00

Mexican writer Guillermo Fadanelli won last Thursday the Premio Grijalbo de Novela 2012 for his novel "Las mujeres muertas" (The dead women).Read More

Sex is dirty and innocent, reproduction, monstrous

2012-09-28T06:24:00.001-07:00

The provocative Colombian writer Fernando Vallejo ensures that overpopulation is the great tragedy of humanity and that politics is a gangster system...Read More

On the Road

2012-09-28T02:22:00.001-07:00

Director Walter Salles talks to Margaret Pomeranz about jazz, bebop and On the Road, his new movie inspired by the life of writer Jack Kerouac.Read More

Junot Díaz

2012-09-28T01:38:00.001-07:00

The geek hero who gave us The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao returns with a new collection of linked stories, This Is How You Lose Her. Read More

Carlos Fuentes: Vlad

2012-08-06T06:03:00.001-07:00

Jeff Vandermeer reviews Carlos Fuentes lastest novel "Vlad".When Carlos Fuentes died in May at age 83, he left behind an impressive legacy and an eclectic body of work. Novels like the sprawling, Joycean "Terra Nostra" placed him at the center of the Latin American Boom of the 1970s, alongside such greats as Cortázar and García Márquez. But later books were often just as ambitious, returning to

Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramirez turns 70

2012-08-06T06:02:00.001-07:00

An interview with Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramirez, winner of the Premio Iberoamericano de Letras "José Donoso" in 2011, and the Alfaguara Prize in 1998, where he talks about his career and projects.La escritura para mí es como una fuerza vital que me abre una perspectiva de trabajo todos los días. Tengo entusiasmo por la escritura y, por tanto, entusiasmo por la vida, de manera que diría que me

Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Prisoner of Heaven

2012-08-06T05:48:00.001-07:00

Yvonne Zipp reviews Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "The Prisoner of Heaven""The Prisoner of Heaven" is Zafon's third novel set around Sempere & Sons bookstore and the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a fabled repository in Barcelona where people are allowed to choose one volume in their lifetime. Oh, you could digitize all those rare editions, but where's the drama in that? Zafon claims you don't have to

Chavela Vargas

2012-08-06T01:01:00.001-07:00