Valeria Luiselli | |
|---|---|
 Luiselli at the 2016Hay Festival | |
| Born | (1983-08-16)August 16, 1983 (age 42) Mexico City, Mexico |
| Occupation | Author |
| Education | National Autonomous University of Mexico (BA) Columbia University (PhD) |
| Period | 2013–present |
| Website | |
| https://www.valerialuiselli.com at theWayback Machine (archived 2024-03-20) | |
Valeria Luiselli (born August 16, 1983) is a Mexican-American author.[1] She is the author of the book of essaysSidewalks and the novelFaces in the Crowd, which won theLos Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Luiselli's 2015 novelThe Story of My Teeth was a finalist for theNational Book Critics Circle Award and theBest Translated Book Award, and won theLos Angeles Times Book Prize for Best Fiction, and she was awarded thePremio Metropolis Azul inMontreal, Quebec. Luiselli's books have been translated into more than 20 languages, with her work appearing in publications including,The New York Times,Granta,McSweeney's, andThe New Yorker. Her bookTell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions[2] was a finalist for theKirkus Prize in Nonfiction and theNational Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism.[3] Luiselli's 2019 novel,Lost Children Archive won theCarnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.[4][5][6]
In 2014, Luiselli was the recipient of theNational Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 award. In 2019, she won aMacArthur Fellowship, also known as a MacArthur "Genius Grant".[7] In 2020, theVilcek Foundation awarded her a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature[8] and theFolio Prize.[9]
Luiselli was born inMexico City, and moved toMadison, Wisconsin, with her family at the age of two.[10] Her father's work inNGOs and later as a diplomat moved the family toCosta Rica,South Korea, andSouth Africa.[10] After her parents separated, she moved back to Mexico City with her mother at the age of 16. Luiselli attendedUWC Mahindra College inIndia before returning to Mexico.[citation needed] She completed a BA in philosophy at theNational Autonomous University of Mexico,[11] and then lived inSpain andFrance.[citation needed] At age 25, she moved toNew York City to pursue a master's degree in latin american studies and a PhD in comparative literature atColumbia University.[12][11]
After earning a bachelor's degree inPhilosophy from theNational Autonomous University of Mexico, Luiselli moved to New York City to dance. She eventually studied comparative literature atColumbia University, where she completed a Ph.D.[13] She teaches literature and creative writing atBard College, collaborates as a writer with a number of art galleries, and has worked as a librettist for theNew York City Ballet.[14] She served as a juror for theNeustadt International Prize for Literature in 2016.[15]
Several of Luiselli's books are based on real-world experiences.The Story of My Teeth (2015) was first written in serial for workers in aJumex juice factory in Mexico as part of a commission from Galería Jumex.[1] Her nonfiction workTell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions (2017) is based on her experiences volunteering as an interpreter for young Central American migrants seeking legal status in the United States.[16] The book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism in 2017. Her work with asylum-seeking children from Latin America also informs the central theme in her 2019 novelLost Children Archive.[10]
Luiselli started a literacy program for girls in a detention center in upstate New York that focuses on creative writing. Luiselli is passionate about researching and writing aboutmass incarceration in the United States, with a focus on detention centers. She is working on a performance piece with the poetNatalie Diaz related to mass incarceration and violence against women.[10]
Luiselli has been interested in writing about and working to improve the plight of asylum-seeking children fromLatin America, a theme that is present in her 2020 novel,Lost Children Archive. She began writingLost Children Archive in 2014 "as a loudspeaker for all of [her] political rage" after having served as a court translator for children from Latin America involved in the migration crisis. The creation of this book was also a reaction to her daughter working to understand the migration crisis for herself. Before completingLost Children Archive in 2019, Luiselli publishedTell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions that uses the format of the questions she used in the court when interviewing the children, and includes her own experience with applying for a green card. The time spent writing the essay allowed her to writeLost Children Archive with "more open questions and open ends instead of political stances that are too loud and obvious by themselves".[10]
Luiselli supports a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions, including publishers and literary festivals. She was an original signatory of the manifesto "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions".[17]
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Luiselli met the Mexican novelistÁlvaro Enrigue after her writing teacher sent an essay she wrote to Enrigue, then an editor at the literary magazineLetras Libres. They began a romantic relationship and married in the early 2010s,[18] but later separated.[19] They have a daughter together, with whom Luiselli lives inNew York City.[20][10]
Sidewalks is Luiselli's debut book of essays, in which she explores themes of motion, travel, transition, and reflection.[21]
Faces in the Crowd (2011) is atriptych that follows the perspectives of the narrator, a young mother living and working as a translator in New York, the protagonist of that mother's semi-autobiographical novel, andGilberto Owen, a 20th-century Mexican poet.[22] These three perspectives are woven together throughout the story.
Luiselli's second novel,The Story of My Teeth, tells the story of Gustavo (Highway) Sánchez Sánchez, an auctioneer who claims to sell the teeth of authors and historical figures, and uses the money to purchase the supposed teeth ofMarilyn Monroe to replace his own.[23]The Story of My Teeth was written in chapters and distributed to the workers of a juice factory in Mexico. The workers read the chapters out loud and provided comments on them, which Luiselli recorded and took into consideration as she wrote the next chapter.[22]
In this book, Luiselli draws from her experience working as an interpreter for Central American child migrants.[16] The book links the experiences of migrant children risking their lives to come to the United States to Luiselli's own experiences of getting a green card and staying here with her family.[16]
Her fifth book, this is the first to be written in English. She said she used it as a loudspeaker for all of her political rage regarding the migration crisis.Lost Children Archive follows a mother, father, and their two children on their journey driving from New York toArizona in the heat of summer. On the way, they learn about the immigration crisis and learn that they may soon be in a crisis of their own.[24]
