"Cuba in 2014: A conversation with Nancy Alonso"

**Event will be in Spanish**

Nancy Alonso is a writer known for her ability to describe circumstances of everyday life in Cuba with insight, empathy and humor. In this exchange she will share excerpts from her short stories and answer questions. She will also tell how Cuba has changed and is changing in the 21st century and will provide a perspective that transcends typical news reports about her homeland.

Speaker: Popular short story writer Nancy Alonso graduated from the University of Havana with a degree in Biology and worked for more than 20 years as a professor and researcher at Havana’s Institute of Medical Science. From 1989 to 1991, she taught Physiology at Jimma’s Institute of Health Sciences in Ethiopia as part of Cuba’s medical and educational outreach and service overseas. Fortunately for readers, she turned to fiction in the 1990s during Cuba’s “special period.” Her arrival on the literary scene, although late, has been highly successful. First with Tirar la primera piedra (Casting the first stone) in 1997 and then with Cerrado por reparación (Closed for Repairs) which won a 2002 Cuban literary prize for Women’s Narrative, she became known as an especially adroit depicter of life on the island and of universal human foibles.

Her 2008 collection, Desencuentro (Disconnect) entered the newly-created space in Cuban narrative that allowed for direct reference to homosexual love. She is currently at work on a fourth book of stories. Alonso’s work has appeared in numerous anthologies in English translation: Cubana, Beacon Press,1998; Making a Scene, Mango (UK) 2002; Open Your Eyes and Soar, White Pine Press, 2003; and Cuba on the Edge: Short Stories from the Island, CCC Press (UK), 2007. In addition she’s been translated into Italian, Croatian, and Icelandic. Two of her texts are available as complete editions in English: Closed for Repairs (2007) Northwestern University Press and Disconnect/Desencuentro a bilingual edition with original illustrations published by Cubanabooks (2012).