Guadalajara International Book Fair

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Toxic relationships in literature

FIL Literature
Toxic relationships in literature

Literature brings us closer to an inexhaustible exploration of themes about the human condition, including those stories that lead us to experience dark, violent situations marked by abuses and scars, sometimes imperceptible to the human eye. This talk will address the issue of what we understand as toxic relationships through literature, from a variety of approaches and ways of putting into words those stories that will not leave us indifferent.
Characters who live destructive relationships and are in an emotional roller-coaster going through the wounds, suffering, abuse and deep destruction before the different violences of those who live them inside and outside of fiction, coming from those monsters whose faces end up taking the form of the parents, relatives, friends and even a partner.
Four outstanding voices of Spanish-written narrative such as the Ecuadorian writer María Fernanda Ampuero, author of books such as Cockfight, Visceral and Human Sacrifices; and the Spanish author Marta Sanz, with Amor fou; Nuria Barros, with Amores patológicos, and Sabina Urraca, with El celo, they will accompany us on this journey through their own and others' works that portray that most bestial side of the human being.

Participants: Marta Sanz, Nuria Barrios

Moderator: Sabina Urraca

Marta Sanz

Invitado de Honor

(Madrid, 1967) has a PhD in Philology. She has published novels, stories, essays and poems. Her novels include: El frío; Los mejores tiempos (Ojo Crítico Award from RNE in 2001); Susana y los viejos (finalist of the 2006 Nadal Award), La lección de anatomía; the trilogy of detective Arturo Zarco, Black, black, black, Un buen detective no se casa jamás and pequeñas mujeres rojas (Tenerife Noir Award 2020); Daniela Astor y la caja negra (Tigre Juan, Cálamo-Otra mirada and Estado Crítico awards); Amor fou, Farándula (Herralde Award 2016), Clavícula and Parte de mí.

She has contributed stories to collections and has won the Vargas Llosa-NH Award. Her complete poems are collected under the title Corpórea and the book of poems Vintage received the Premio de la Crítica de Madrid. Her essays include No tan incendiario; Monstruas y centauras, which received the 2018 CEGAL Award, and Enciclopedia secreta.

She collaborates with El País, Cadena SER and teaches at the Escuela de Escritores. Her latest novel is Persianas metálicas bajan de golpe (Anagrama, 2023). At the end of 2024, she will publish her work Los íntimos, again with Anagrama publishers.

Other activities involving the participant:
Do you write too? Family constellations of a trade

Nuria Barrios

Invitado de Honor

Writer and translator with a PhD in Philosophy. She is the author of the essay La impostora, winner of the Premio Málaga de Ensayo; of the novels Todo arde and El alfabeto de los pájaros; of the storybooks Ocho centímetros, El zoo sentimental, Amores patológicos and Balearia; and of the poetry books La luz de la dinamo, winner of the Premio Iberoamericano de Poesía Hermanos Machado, Nostalgia de Odiseo and El hilo de agua, winner of the Premio Ateneo de Sevilla.

Her first book, Amores patológicos, has been revised and d to commemorate its 25th anniversary.

Nuria Barrios is the translator into Spanish of Irish novelist John Banville/Benjamin Black. Her latest translations are The Dead, by James Joyce, and Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman. She is a professor in the Master's program in Literary Creation and Diploma in Writing, Style and Creativity at the Universidad Internacional de Valencia (VIU).

Other activities involving the participant:
In the lost footsteps of the family
Do you write too? Family constellations of a trade

Sabina Urraca

Invitado de Honor

(San Sebastián, 1984) is a writer and editor. She grew up in Tenerife and has lived in Madrid for over twenty years. She is the author of Las niñas prodigio (2017, Fulgencio Pimentel), winner of the Javier Morote Award, presented by the Spanish Confederation of Guilds and Associations of Booksellers (CEGAL), and selected by New Spanish Books, a program aimed at translating works in Spanish; Soñó con la chica que robaba un caballo (2021, Lengua de Trapo); Chachachá (Dueto) (2023, Comisura) and El celo (2024, Alfaguara). She has also featured in the anthologies Verónica... (2023, Bcn Producció, La Capella), Hospitalidad contra pronóstico (2023, Bartlebooth y Concomitentes), Tranquilas.Historias para ir solas de noche (2019, Lumen) and La errabunda (2018, Lindo y Espinosa).

Her stories and translations of some chapters of her books have been published in magazines such as The White Review (United Kingdom), The Washington Square Review (USA) and Picnic (Mexico), and she has collaborated with columns and articles in outlets such as El País, El Cultural, Vice and Cinemania. She has a monthly column in the literary magazine Zenda.

She has taught writing workshops in Spain, Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica. In 2020, she received the 10 de 30 grant, which promotes the internationalization of Spanish writers, as part of which she gave talks at the Instituto Cervantes in Chicago and Georgetown University in Washington.

In 2019, she debuted as editor with Panza de burro, by Andrea Abreu (Barrett), as part of the “Editor for a book” project. In 2020, she received the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) grant in Spanish Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. She is the resident editor of Caballo de Troya (Penguin Random House) for 2023 and 2024. In 2023, she was awarded a literary residency by the Finestres Foundation. In 2022, she received the Leonardo grant for creators from the BBVA Foundation.