T127.
The Language of Leaving: Puerto Rican Writers on/from the Diaspora
Thursday, February 8, 2024
9:00 am to 10:15 am
Puerto Rico has long been a rich source of stories for those within and without its borders. This panel, composed of writers of Puerto Rican descent working in fiction, memoir, and other creative nonfiction, will focus on the challenges of writing about home, sometimes in another language, from the perspective of an expatriate, during a time of economic and political upheaval in their native country.
Participants
Claudia Acevedo-Quiñones is a multigenre writer from Puerto Rico. Her work, which focuses on etymology, dreams, and diaspora, has appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, wildness, Ambit Magazine, and other publications. Her first book, The Hurricane Book, was published by Rose Metal Press in October 2023.
Amina Lolita Gautier is the author of four short story collections: At-Risk, Now We Will Be Happy, The Loss of All Lost Things, and The Best That You Can Do. For her body of work she has received the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story.
Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón (Caguas, Puerto Rico) has published the novels Los días hábiles, Palacio, and Dicen que los dormidos; and the collection of stories Preciosos perdedores. In 2017, he was selected by the Hay Festival as part of Bogotá39, a list of thirty-nine promising writers from the continent under the age of thirty-nine.
Jerilynn Aquino is a Puerto Rican writer from New Jersey. Her work appears in Salt Hill, Booth, The Journal, Gulf Coast, and others. In 2023, she was awarded a residency from Hedgebrook, and in 2022, received an AWP Intro Journals award for her essay "El Velorio: An Elegy."
