Yuri Herrera and Post-Apocalyptic Noir

What this episode covers

Mexican novelist, Yuri Herrera, talks to Alejandro Soifer about his work which explores the relationship between power and art. The conversation centres around two of Herrera’s most recent English translations, showing how novelists can deftly challenge the fictions of the particular societies that they are portraying. He reads from his work Transmigration of Bodies, (published in Mexico in 2013 and translated to English in 2016 by Lisa Dillman) and demonstrates how there is humour to be found even in the midst of violence and terror that challenge the very structures of power that keep a country from receding into chaos. Born in Actopan, Mexico, in 1970, Yuri Herrera studied Politics in Mexico, Creative Writing in El Paso and took his PhD in literature at Berkeley. His first novel to appear in English, Signs Preceding the End of the World, was published to great critical acclaim in 2015 and included in many Best-of-Year lists, including The Guardian‘s Best Fiction and NBC News’s Ten Great Latino Books, going on to win the 2016 Best Translated Book Award. He is currently teaching at the Tulane University, in New Orleans. The host of this episode is Alejandro Soifer. Alejandro was born in Buenos Aires in 1983 and holds a degree in Letras (Comparative Literature) with a specialization in Argentinian and Latin American Literature and a degree in Spanish Language and Literature Teaching both granted by the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Book History and Print Culture program. His field of studies is Modern and Contemporary Hispanic Literature and Culture (1700-present) and his field of research is popular literature genres in Latin America. His current research is on contemporary noir, hardboiled and mystery Mexican literature.