Author of Oficio de Tinieblas (The Book of Lamentations), Ciudad Real (Royal City), Rito de Iniciación (Initiation Rite), and Cartas a Ricardo (Letters to Ricardo), Rosario Castellano’s writing has strongly influenced a contemporary generation of writers and artists such as Valeria Luiselli and Natalia Beristáin, the director of Los adioses (2018), a film on Castellanos.

Featuring translations from the host, Nancy Ross, this presentation will discuss excerpts from Castellanos’ first novel Balún Canán (1957) and the poem “Valium 10” from Poesía no eres tú (1972). This presentation will be co-facilitated by Lorenia Salgado-Leos. The readings will be followed by a discussion.
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Nancy Jean Ross is in the final year of the master’s program in Spanish at the University of British Columbia. She is the convener of the play reading group at University Women’s Club of Vancouver. She has translated work by Rosario Castellanos, Sabina Berman and Myrna Nieves and has created and performed theatre pieces based on Castellanos’ work. She has an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from NYU, an MA in Latin American Literature from the University of Toronto and an MFA in poetry and creative nonfiction from the New School University. She also completed the first year of the MFA program in theatre at Sarah Lawrence College. Her poems, translations and essays have been published in The Malahat Review, Paterson Literary Review, Bridges, Other Voices, revista temporales and other journals. In 1997 she won the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize.

Lorenia Salgado-Leos is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She holds an MA in Comparative Literature from San Diego State University (SDSU) and a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Previous research projects involved Rosario Castellanos’ philosophy, digital archives of feminism(s) in 20th-century Mexico, and feminist geographies and activisms in post-1968 Mexico. Her current research project examines contemporary literature and visual culture, particularly Haitian and Central American diasporic-border narratives. She served as a Graduate Student Representative (2019-2020) and since 2018 teaches introductory Spanish courses at UBC