Artists in Residence are listed in order of residency date, September 8 to October 13, 2016.
Carla Fuentes (Spain)
Carla Fuentes is a Spanish artist based in Madrid. She’s currently living her dream: working and doing what she loves at the same time. Fuentes has illustrated for so many cool magazines such as Nylon Mx, Vogue Spain, Nero, Yen Mag, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. With quirky lines and paint she creates fantastic characters which invite us to know more about her personal and amazing world.
Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez (USA / Mexico)
Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez is an unrepentant border crosser, ex-dj, writer, painter, and academic. An Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Hispanic Southwest Literatures and Cultures in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico, he has also taught and lectured at universities across the United States and in Spain. Author of four collections of short stories, Algún día te cuento las cosas que he visto (2012), Luego el silencio (2014), One Day I’ll Tell You the Things I’ve Seen (2015), and En el Lost y Found (2016). His literary work has been published in anthologies in Spain, Italy, Latin America and the United States, including Malos elementos. Relatos sobre la corrupción social (2012); En la frontera: i migliori raconti della letteratura chicana (2008); Pequeñas resistencias 4 (2005); Se habla español (2000); and Líneas aéreas(1998). His stories have also appeared in literary journals including Make Literary Magazine, Etiqueta Negra, Los noveles, Paralelo Sur, Revista 0, Camino Real, and Ventana abierta. His academic work focuses on US Latino cultural expression, and US/Mexico border cultures. He has presented at international conferences in Turkey, Spain, Colombia, Peru, the United States, Mexico, the Netherlands and Norway.
Cristian Proa (Mexico)
He was born in Mexico City on August 31, 1982. His a Film director and writer. He has participated in various seminars and has worked alongside teachers like: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Fernando Meirelles, Mary Sweeny, Rafael Perrin, German Robles, Josefo Rodriguez and sculptor Javier Marin. Founder and Director of " MUESTRA DE CINE 1910" which is credited to more than 70 directors from around the world projecting in countries like USA, Chile, Argentina, Spain, Mexico and Germany. His work as a director has led to present his work at major cultural venues in the city of Mexico like Museo Soumaya, Cineteca Nacional, Palace of Beauty arts in Mexico, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Biblioteca Vasconcelos, and Museo Diego Rivera. In other countries like Chile and USA exhibiting in koubek Center, Art Basel, and O cinema in Miami and Palace of the Moneda in Santiago, Chile. Cristian has also been selected to participate in international festivals, being recognized for his creativity in art. This results in being part of the jury in Film Festivals like Miami Short Film Festival, the festival "Cinema of the streets", film festival of Tabasco, Rakk Focus. His performances has distinguished lectures and master classes inside recognized university like University of Munich in Germany, Miami Dade College USA, University Andres Bello in Chile and in Mexico la University of Guadalajara, University Autonoma of San Luis Potosi, UNAM, UVM, UAM and University insurgent. Between his filmography is his short film "DESPERTAR" (2003) being among the first places in the festival of Rio De Janeiro. Created "NEBLINA" (2005) and travels to Santiago, Chile to film his third Short film "FUERA DE MI" being an official deletion in Valdivia festival and Sapporo International Film Festival in Japan. He continues with his work and films "ESCAFANDRA" (2008) being nominated in various festivals in Argentina, Spain, and Mexico. Then performs "CYCLOPE" (2011) nominated best director, best screenwriter and best short fiction. Cyclope is projected in Germany and it becomes an object of study by the school of psychology in the university of Guadalajara. Cristian receives awards for his work as director and promoter of culture in the film festival of Tabasco (Rakk Focus) and from the county of Miami, Florida in behalf of the Miami Dade College. He performed along Nelson Hernandez and Antonio Eusebi his first documentary feature film called "HOMONATURA" which is next to being released. Currently resides in USA and promotes his last short film "AEGIS" Which will be premiered at the New York Film Festival and will compete in festivals worldwide. Besides teaching, producing and creating he ventures as a columnist and shares about Cinema in the newspaper "Miami Diario". He also films a podcast called "CINEMA 4". He presented "Dreamers of Decadence " in the foundations of the Art Basel. Finally and enthusiastically Cristian Proa beings preparations for his second feature "BLIND" Which will take place in Istanbul, Turkey. Addition to creating "REFLECTIONS" a cinematic movement with 6 directors more to generate a film industry in Miami. (Wikipedia)
Cristina Garcia (Cuba / USA)
Cristina García is the author of seven novels, including: Dreaming in Cuban, The Agüero Sisters, Monkey Hunting, A Handbook to Luck, The Lady Matador’s Hotel, King of Cuba, and the forthcoming Berliners Who.García has edited two anthologies, Cubanísimo: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Cuban Literature and Bordering Fires: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicano/a Literature. Two works for young readers, The Dog Who Loved the Moon, and I Wanna Be Your Shoebox were published in 2008 and a young adult novel, Dreams of Significant Girls, in 2011. A collection of poetry, The Lesser Tragedy of Death, was published in 2010.NOW IN PAPERBACK: KING OF CUBA, her darkly comic sixth novel, features a fictionalized Fidel Castro, an octogenarian Miami exile, and a rabble of Cuban voices. NPR called it “a wicked pleasure.”García’s work has been nominated for a National Book Award and translated into fourteen languages. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and an NEA grant, among others. García has taught at universities nationwide. Recently, she completed her tenure as University Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University-San Marcos and as Visiting Professor at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas-Austin. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
Pablo Brescia (Argentina)
Pablo Brescia was born in Buenos Aires and has lived in the United States since 1986. He has published two books of short stories Fuera de Lugar/Out of Place (Peru, 2012/Mexico, 2013) and La apariencia de las cosas/The Appearance of Things (México, 1997), and a book of hybrid texts No hay tiempo para la poesía/NoTime for Poetry (Buenos Aires, 2011), with the pen name Harry Bimer. Some of his stories are collected in ESC (Miami, 2013) and Gente ordinaria/Ordinary People (Mexico, 2014). His blog is Preferiría (no) hacerlo/I Would Prefer (Not) To http://pablobrescia.blogspot.com. He teaches Latin American Literature at the University of South Florida and likes philosophy, movies, soccer, tennis and music, not necessarily in that order.
Liliana Blum (Mexico)
Liliana Blum (Mexico, 19xx) is not one of those women who refuse to reveal their date of birth; she just likes coincidences. So that she was born the same year that Heinrich Böll’s The lost honor of Katharina Blum was published, is a great one. Liliana is a ginger who suffered through her childhood from that old Mexican pinch-the-redhead-in-the-arm-for-luck belief. She was born in Durango (famous for its scorpions, revolutionaries and narcos). She's the author of the short story collections La maldición de Eva (2003), ¿En qué se nos fue la mañana? (2006), Vidas de catálogo (2007), The curse of Eve and other stories (2008), El libro perdido de Heinrich Böll (2008), Yo sé cuándo expira la leche (2011), and No me pases de largo (2013). She's written the novels Residuos de espanto (2013) and Pandora (2015), her latest work. Her new novel will be released by the end of 2016.
Jennifer Thorndike (Peru)
Jennifer was born on Lima, Peru. She is a scholar and writer. Currently she is a PhD candidate in Hispanic Studies at University of Pennsylvania. Her main interests are biopolitics, bio-economy and bio-value as theoretical frame; and body, sickness and madness in Contemporary Latin American Literature and Cinema; everyday political activism and power relationships among vulnerable subjects. She has published two fictional books and has been part of several Peruvian and Latin American short story collections. In addition, she has been invited to important book fairs such as FIL Guadalajara, FILBO, FIL Lima, among others. She presented papers in NeMLA, LASA and Universidad Federico Villareal. She has also written articles about literature and media in several journals. In 2016 she will publish her second novel by Penguin Random House.
Francisco Ángeles (Peru)
Peruvian writer, journalist and scholar born in Lima-Peru. He is currently based on Philadelphia, writing academic work at the University of Pennsylvania. He has published three novels "La línea en medio del cielo" (2008), "Austin, Texas 1979" (2014), "Plagio" (2016); and the short stories "Hollywood en doble función" (co-authored with Fernando Ampuero, illustrated by Peruvian artist Jugo Gástrico). Since 2005, he co-directs the digital journal "El Hablador".
Asdrúbal Hernández (Venezuela)
Asdrúbal Hernández is a publisher, writer and photographer living in New York City. He has worked for several newspapers, magazines and many other media in Venezuela and U.S.A. On 2011 he founded Sudaquia Group, a venture that aims to promote and offer products and services in Spanish for the US market, through its divisions Sudaquia Editores (www.sudaquia.net), a publishing house of books in Spanish in the U.S. and Sudaquia Publishing Services (www.sudaquiaps.com), a consultant agency for any type of publishing and in-Spanish projects.
Ana Cecilia Blum (Ecuador)
Ana Cecilia Blum realizó sus estudios primarios y secundarios en el convento Stella Maris del Puerto de Manta; en 1989 para continuar con los estudios universitarios se trasladó a Guayaquil, su ciudad natal, donde se tituló como licenciada en Ciencias Políticas y Sociales por la Universidad Laica Vicente Rocafuerte mientras integraba el taller literario de la Casa de la Cultura Núcleo del Guayas, dirigido por los escritores Miguel Donoso y Mario Campaña. Durante estos años también se inscribió en la Universidad Católica para tomar clases de teoría literaria.En 1999 se trasladó a Quito, la capital del Ecuador, donde estudió los textos de autores contemporáneos y del Boom Latinoamericano en los cursos abiertos de la Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar. En el año 2000 emigró hacia los Estados Unidos, y más tarde obtuvo el Posgrado de Lengua Española por la Universidad Estatal de Colorado.Ha sido invitada a leer su poesía en la Biblioteca del Congreso de los Estados Unidos dentro del marco del encuentro literario La Pluma y la Palabra en Washington D.C.; ha participado en varios festivales literarios en América y Europa, entre ellos el Encuentro de Poetas Iberoamericanos en Salamanca, y la Feria Internacional del Libro de Miami.
Grettel Jiménez-Singer (Cuba)
Nació en La Habana, Cuba, en 1973. A los 12 años abandonó la isla con su familia y luego de dos años en Venezuela, se instaló en Miami. Estudió Filosofía y Literatura en Florida International University. Edita el blog "Mujerongas" y colabora con diferentes revistas digitales. Reside actualmente en Nueva York.Todas las piezas que componen este libro tienen como protagonista a la mujer, o más bien, cierta fascinación por la naturaleza femenina y sus diferentes matices. Lo mismo en crónicas que abordan en tono confesional, desprejuiciado y con sentido del humor varios temas que afrontan las mujeres a diario, que en relatos intimistas donde se indaga sin tapujos en las diversas capas de la pasión femenina, o en los recuerdos de una casa de acogida para mujeres colocadas en situaciones límite, las protagonistas indiscutibles de estas páginas son siempre grandes mujeres que no se definen desde lo competitivosino desde lo aventurero; “mujerongas”, que son no sólo las corpulentas, sino las desgarradas y las atrevidas.
Ana Menendez (Cuba)
Ana Menéndez is the author of four books of fiction: Adios, Happy Homeland!, The Last War, Loving Che and In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd. She has worked as a journalist in the United States and abroad, lastly as a prize-winning columnist for The Miami Herald. As a reporter, she wrote about Cuba, Haiti, Kashmir, Afghanistan and India, where she was based for three years. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including Vogue, Bomb Magazine, The New York Times and Tin House and has been included in several anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. She has a B.A. in English from Florida International University and an M.F.A. from New York University. A former Fulbright Scholar in Egypt, she now lives in Surfside, Florida.
Ayanna Thompson (USA)
Ayanna Thompson is Professor of English at George Washington University, and she specializes in Renaissance drama and issues of race in/as performance. She is currently working on a book about Peter Sellars’s approach to directing Shakespeare, and a book on Shakespeare and revenge. Professor Thompson has served as a Trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Marshall Scholars.
Carla Della Gatta (USA)
Carla Della Gatta is an Assistant Professor of Critical Studies at the USC School of Dramatic Arts. She has published essays in collected editions from Oxford University Press and Palgrave Macmillan, and in journals such as Shakespeare Studies, and Bulletin of the Comediantes. She has also published reviews inShakespeare Bulletin, Shakespeare, Theatre Journal, and Sixteenth Century Journal. She has dramaturged professionally, and she was the lead translator for a play from Spanish to English for the Mellon-funded cultural mobility initiative, The Cardenio Project. She worked as a scholar for the theatre for Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Victory Gardens Theater.