About this Event
Please join us in person on Saturday, October 21st at 7:00pm central to help celebrate Juan Goméz Bárcena's new novel, Not Even the Dead published by Open Letter Books. Juan will be in conversation with the translater, Katie Whittemore, and the publisher, Chad W. Post! This event will be extra special, as it is the 15th anniversary of Open Letter Books!
About Not Even the Dead:
Not Even the Dead is the story of a pursuit that transcends territories and centuries; a hallucinatory journey from 1500s colonial Mexico to Trump's Border Wall. The conquest of Mexico is over, and Juan de Toñanes is just one of the many inglorious soldiers eking a small existence on the land he helped conquer. When he receives one last mission, to hunt down a renegade Indian who calls himself the Padre and preaches a dangerous heresy, Juan realizes it may be his last chance to create the future he's always dreamed of. But as he moves deep into the unexplored northern territory, hot on the Padre's trail, Juan discovers the traces of a man who appears to be, in fact, a prophet destined to transform his own time, and possibly future to come. On his quest, Juan will encounter old conquistadors on horseback and migrants riding the roofs of the trains, rebellious Indians and peasants waiting patiently for a better world, Mexican revolutionaries brandishing their rifles and women murdered in the desert of Ciudad Juárez, all sharing the same landscape and the same hope: that the arrival of the Padre will bring ever elusive justice to the oppressed.
About the authors:
Juan Goméz Bárcena (1984) holds degrees in literary theory, comparative literature, and history from the Complutense University of Madrid, and a degree in philosophy from Spain's National University of Distance Education. He's the author of numerous essay, short story, and poetry collections, for which he's received the José Hierro Prize for
Poetry and Fiction, the International CRAPE Prize for stories, and the Ramón J. Sender Prize for Narrative, among others. He lives in Madrid.
Katie Whittemore translates from the Spanish. Her work has appeared in Two Lines, The Arkansas International, The Common Online, Gulf Coast Magazine Online, The Brooklyn Rail, and InTranslation. Current projects include novels by Spanish authors Sara Mesa, Javier Serena, Aliocha Coll, and Aroa Moreno Durán. She lives in Valencia.
Chad W. Post is the publisher of Open Letter Books, a press at the University of Rochester dedicated to publishing contemporary literature from around the world. He is also the editorial director of Dalkey Archive Press, the author of The Three Percent Problem: Rants and Responses on Publishing, Translation, and the Future of Reading.
About the event:
This is a free, in person event and registration is required. Please click on the link below to register for free. Juan and Katie will be happy to sign/personalize copies of Not Even the Dead after the event! Can't make it to the event? Signed copies will be available for purcahse in store and online and we ship nationally!
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Exile in Bookville, 410 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, United States
USD 0.00