S222. Writing on the Border/Escribiendo en La Frontera

Room 504, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Saturday, April 2, 2016
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

 

Located on the US-Mexico border, the University of Texas at El Paso’s Bilingual MFA Program brings together writers from the Borderland, North America, and Latin America. How does a program function with classes in which both Spanish and English are spoken and students have varying degrees of bilingualism? Panelists discuss how the mixing of language, culture, and literary traditions affects their development as writers.


Participants

Moderator:

Katherine Elizabeth Seltzer is an MFA candidate at the University of Texas at El Paso’s bilingual MFA program. She writes fiction and poetry, and teaches undergraduate courses in UTEP's Department of Creative Writing.

Aaron J. Romano-Meade is an MFA candidate at the bilingual MFA program in creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is a fiction writer and translator, and he teaches undergraduate courses for the creative writing department at UTEP.

Alessandra Narváez-Varela studied biology and creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso. She is an MFA candidate in the same institution's bilingual creative writing MFA program. She studies the lyricism of anatomy and physiology in the writing of free verse and prose poetry.

Carla E. Arellano is a product of the border/frontera. Her writing reflects the hybridity of two cultures, two languages, and the never ending quest of finding a place in both. She is pursuing an MFA in creative writing and works as an international college recruiter promoting higher education.

Giannina Mariana Deza studied journalism in Jaime Bausate y Meza university in Lima, Peru. Currently, she is candidate for the MFA in bilingual creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso. She is a fiction writer, and her aesthetics focus on the magical aspect of reality.

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February 7–10, 2024
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Kansas City Convention Center