EVENT: "When I Became Mortal: A Conversation with Mexican Writer Carmen Boullosa"

Carmen Boullosa, one of Mexico's most respected and internationally recognized contemporary writers, will give a free public talk at noon on Monday, April 28, in the Welles-Brown Room of Rush Rhees Library on the University of Rochester's River Campus. Speaking in English, Boullosa will discuss the art of writing and her own development as a creative writer and will take questions after her presentation.

An award-winning novelist, poet, and dramatist, Boullosa is renowned for her experimental and daring writing. Her work explores feminism, gender roles, and sensuality in works that range from a novel about 17th century pirates to a story of childhood in southern Mexico.

The author of four collections of poetry, 11 novels, and several theater pieces, Boullosa was awarded the Premio Xavier Villarrutia, one of Mexico's most prestigious literary honors, in 1989. She also has won Frankfurt's Literary Prize presented at the city's annual book fair, the Anna Seghers Prize from the Berlin Arts Academy, and a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship.

Two of her novels have been translated into English: Son vacas, somos puercos as They're Cows, We're Pigs, and Treinta años as Leaving Tabasco. Her most recent novel, De un salto descabalga la reina, will soon appear in English, and many of her novels also have been translated into French, German, Italian, and Dutch.

Boullosa currently holds the Andres Bello Chair in Latin American Cultures and Civilizations at the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at New York University. She has also been a visiting professor at Georgetown University and San Diego State University, writer in residence for the city of Berlin, and held the Alfonso Reyes Chair at the Sorbonne in fall 2001.

While at Rochester, Boullosa will meet with students in a course on Latin American women writers. Her visit is sponsored by the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures and cosponsored by the department's Spanish Section as well as the Office of the Dean of the College, the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies, the Modern Languages and Cultures Undergraduate Council, and the Department of English. For more information, call (585) 275-4251.