In Super Extra Grande (Restless Books, 2015), a novel by Cuban sci-fi author Yoss (pictured above), Latin Americans have pioneered faster-than-light travel and spearheaded human colonization of the Milky Way, and the galactic lingua franca is now Spanglish. Using this satirical element as a jumping-off point, Yoss and award-winning writer, scholar, and Restless Books publisher Ilan Stavans will discuss science fiction and the future of latinidad.
Yoss is also an essayist, critic, and writer of realism, and heroic fantasy. He is considered to be the most significant contemporary fantasy writer from Cuba. His work has been awarded numerous prizes, both in Cuba and abroad, and has appeared in various national and international anthologies. To date, he has published over thirty books in Cuba and around the world, and his work has been translated into English, French, Italian, Polish, and Japanese. Yoss holds a degree in biology from the University of Havana. He has been a participant in the Oscar Hurtado, Julio Verne, and El Negro Hueco fantasy and science fiction workshops, and he founded the Espiral and Espacio Abierto workshops. Between 2005 and 2008 he was the Spanish editor in chief of The H, a bilingual magazine about the city of Havana. Between 2012 and 2013 he was the author of the blog La llaga (a place to put your finger). Since 2007, he has been the lead singer for the heavy metal band TENAZ (click on this link for one of their leading songs: EL QUE A HIERRO MATA).
Like Super Extra Grande, Yoss’ previous novel, A Planet for Rent (Restless Books, 2014) has been praised as some of the best science fiction written anywhere for decades, eliciting this commentary from The New York Times: “In prose that is direct, sarcastic, sexual and often violent, A Planet for Rent criticizes Cuban reality in thinly veiled terms…. The book is particularly critical of the government-run tourism industry of the ’90s, which welcomed and protected tourists — often at the expense of Cubans — and whose legacy can still be felt today.” Both novels will be on sale at the event.
Mexican-American writer and translator Ilan Stavans is the publisher of Restless Books. He is also known for his essays and commentaries about American, Hispanic, and Jewish cultures. He is also a contributor to the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2010).
His books include, most recently, Reclaiming Travel (Duke, co-written with Joshua Ellison) and Quixote: The Novel and the World (Norton), where Stavans persuasively argues in his introduction why Cervantes’ classic is rightfully regarded as the greatest novel of the Western canon. Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books will also be available for purchase at the event.
INSTITUTO CERVANTES
211 East 49th Street, NYC
(between 2nd & 3rd Aves.)
Free Admission ~ RSVP at: cccofny@aol.com
This event is co-sponsored and co-organized by Instituto Cervantes
and is presented in conjunction with the Philip K. Dick Film Festival and Restless Books
With the promotional support of Diario de Cuba and Havana/NewYork
