Liliana Valenzuela and Cristina Garcia will perform bilingual readings at 7 p.m. this Thursday, October 1, as part of Austin Community College’s The Big Read program. The readings will be held at the Main Theater of ACC’s Rio Grande Campus.

Don’t miss the all-star cast of Macondo Writers Liliana Valenzuela, Vicente Lozano, and Gregg Barrios who will perform during the San Antonio arts celebration Luminaria. They will perform from 7:10 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Convention Center Galleries on Saturday, March 14, 2009 (details).

AATIA member Liliana Valenzuela will conduct a workshop class as a core faculty member of the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference the week of July 12–19, 2009, in Port Townsend, Washington.

…Valenzuela [is] one of the foremost English-to-Spanish translators in the world—a translator who is also, as Artistic Director Cristina García notes, a superb poet in her own right. Liliana’s workshop class will focus on the words that we use in our writing. "What is your particular linguistic treasure trove?" she asks. "How can you use it to enrich your writing?" According to García: "Liliana brings her boundless curiosity, her poet’s musicality, and an exquisite ear for language to everything she touches. Her workshop promises to be a fascinating experience."

The Port Townsend Writers’ Conference has been at the center of the thriving Pacific Northwest literary scene since 1973. With a focus on community and rigorous attention to craft, the Conference offers morning workshops, afternoon workshops, residencies, guided freewrites, and a vibrant readings and lectures series presented by vital, contemporary writers.

Join Liliana Valenzuela at the Texas State Capitol (room E2.010) on Sat. Nov. 1, 3-4 pm, for a panel discussion “Lessons in Language and Life” based on the anthology How I Learned English: Accomplished Latinos Recall Lessons in Language and Life, published by National Geographic Books, in which both she and fellow panelist Ruth Behar have essays. The third panelist is Tom Miller.

Check out the Texas Book Festival’s full schedule, which has more information about the panel discussion and other events.

Liliana Valenzuela’s latest translation Había una vez una quinceañera: de niña a mujer en EE.UU by Julia Alvarez (original title: Once Upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the U.S.A.) has been published by Penguin and is now available in bookstores.

She also has two YouTube clips online. One is a Univisión interview of Liliana Valenzuela for the Orgullo Latino (Latin Pride) segment from last year. The second is one of her poems, read by the writer and performer Carmen Tafolla in English and Spanish.

Left to itself, every literature will exhaust its vitality if it is not refreshed by the interest and contributions of a foreign one.
 — Goethe, 1827.

This belief that international literature plays a vital role in book culture is one that is shared by all the publishers and booksellers involved in Reading the World, a celebration of literature in translation to be held at BookPeople on Friday, June 6.

Noted Russian translator Marian Schwartz will moderate the hour-long program, which begins at 7 p.m. and will consist of three parts:

1. Liliana Valenzuela reading from her translation from English into Spanish: Cristina Garcia, A Handbook to Luck/Las Caras de la Suerte

2. Cristina Ferreira-Pinto Bailey reading from her translation from Portuguese: Teeth Under the Sun by Ignácio de Loyola Brandão (Dalkey Archive P, 2007).

3. Michele McKay Aynesworth presenting Beacons, the literary journal of the American Translators Association, with readings by the following: Liliana Valenzuela, Tony Beckwith, and Rob Cogswell and his translator, Horacio Peña.

This event is hosted by the Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association. 

Due to the conflict with the Old Pecan Street festival and the related parking problems downtown, the LitSIG meeting this coming Saturday, May 3, from 2 to 4 p.m. will be held at the home of Marian Schwartz.

Liliana Valenzuela will coordinate a discussion of the April issue of Poetry magazine, which is devoted to translation.  Last we heard, Liliana had two copies left; contact her to obtain a copy and the prospectus for the discussion.

You are invited to a bilingual reading by novelist Cristina García (author of Dreaming in Cuban, The Agüero Sisters, and other books and anthologies) and her translator, Liliana Valenzuela. They will read from García’s latest novel A Handbook to Luck (Knopf, 2007), which Valenzuela translated into Spanish as Las Caras de la Suerte (Vintage Español, 2008). García will also read from her new children’s book The Dog Who Loved the Moon. 

7 p.m. Friday, May 2, 2008 at BookPeople (6^th St. & Lamar)