Poet, Novelist and Playwright Carmen Boullosa Discusses Her Roots April 21

Poet, novelist and playwright Carmen Boullosa, one of the most prolific and innovative voices in Mexican literature, has explored many literary genres in her multifaceted career.

Her first novels, Mejor desaparece and Antes, were bildungsroman, or coming-of-age works. In subsequent novels Cielos de la Tierra, Duerme and Llanto: novelas imposibles, she goes back to Mexico’s colonial period to explore the organization of society, and how the relations of race, genre and ethnicity composed Latin America at that time, and the connection with present-day Mexico.

Boullosa’s latest books include El complot de los Románticos, a spooky road trip of a novel that uses a ghost as a device, and Tejas, in which the author is critical of the way the border was formed between Mexico and the U.S. In many of her novels, Boullosas analyzes the way history has been written.

The students taking part in the seminar Historical Novels in Latin America (taught by Assistant Professor of Romance Languages Carolyn Wolfenzon) will have the opportunity April 19 to speak with Boullosa about Duerme, a novel discussed previously in class.

Boullosa will deliver the talk “My Roots” Tuesday April 21, when she will discuss the literary roots that have nourished and inspired her – from Mexican authors Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Rosario Castellanos, to other writers of international renown.

Boullosa has been a Guggenheim and Cullman Center Fellow, held the Chair Andrés Bello at NYU, and the Alfonso Reyes Chair at La Sorbonne.

She was a distinguished professor at Georgetown University and Columbia University, and taught at City College CUNY for years.

Boullosa hosts the television program “Nueva York,” which has won five New York region Emmy awards.