Middle East Studies

"In Defense of Diversity" | Chilean-Palestinian Writer Lina Meruane | FLIP Festival

FLIP Festival Lina Meruane poster

Saturday, April 6, 2024

12:00-1:15 p.m.

Granoff Center for the Arts, 154 Angell St.
Englander Studio N420

About the Event
Chilean-Palestinian writer Lina Meruane will be a featured panelist at the Providence Iberoamerican Literature Festival (FLIP) and will speak with Argentine-Spanish writer Clara Obligado in the session "In Defense of Diversity," moderated by publisher Juan Casamayor (Páginas de Espuma) and Michelle Clayton (Hispanic Studies). As part of this public interview session, we will delve into Meruane's advocacy for Palestinian identity and heritage, particularly within the framework of the historical migration of Palestinians to Latin America. Additionally, we will explore her experiences with institutional racism as a woman of Palestinian descent in Chile.  

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About the Speaker
Chilean-Palestinian writer and intellectual Lina Meruane is renowned for her impactful contributions to contemporary literature in Latin America and the global literary scene. Meruane has received the Blue Metropolis Prize (Canada 2023), the Cálamo Award (Spain 2016), the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Award (Mexico 2012), and the Anna Seghers Prize (Berlin 2011), as well as writing grants from the Guggenheim Foundation (USA 2004), the NEA (USA 2010), the DAAD (Germany 2017) and la Casa Cien Años de Soledad (Mexico 2021), among others. She teaches creative writing at New York University (USA). Meruane’s fiction includes the short story collection Las Infantas (The Princesses), as well as five novels–Póstuma (Posthumous), Cercada (Corral), Fruta podrida (Rotten Fruit), Sangre en el ojo (Seeing Red, USA, Deep Vellum, 2016) and Sistema nervioso (Nervous System, USA, Graywolf, 2021)–translated into twelve languages. Meruane’s nonfiction books include the essays Viajes virales (Viral Travel) and Zona ciega (Blind Spot), the personal essay Palestina en pedazos (Palestine in Pieces), an expanded version of her earlier essay, Volverse Palestina (Becoming Palestinian), the lyrical essay Palestina por ejemplo (Palestine for Example), and the diatribe Contra los hijos (Against the Kids), meanwhile, is a collection of Meruane’s shortest essays. Meruane has ventured into playwriting with a theatrical adaptation, "Un lugar donde caerse muerta" (“A place to drop dead”), and one dramatic work: "Esa cosa animal" (“That animal thing”).