Not Even The Dead - A CHEUSE SALON at the Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain
Tuesday, October 24, 2023 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM EDT
We’ll never know what the late Cormac McCarthy might have thought of Juan Gómez Bárcena’s “Not Even the Dead,” but I wager that the novel would have appealed to him, and also to Roberto Bolaño and Joseph Conrad, if for no reason other than their egos.
- Randy Boyagoda says of "Not Only the Dead" in the New York Times (see here)
Where: Former Residence of the Ambassadors of Spain, 2801 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
Evening Program: Launching "Not Only the Dead" in Washington DC, we bring you Juan Gómez Bárcena, the Cheuse Center's Writer-in-Residence from Spain. He will read from his latest novel, "Not Only the Dead," translated by Katie Whittemore, followed by a deep dive into his work with Lisa Page.
Art: Lula Goce's "Ode to Dune Plants"
Photography: "Washington Store" by Jesús Madriñán
Visiting Exhibition from the Meadows Museum - SMU
Accessibility: The Cheuse Center and Spain Arts and Culture look forward to seeing you at 6:30 on the 24th of October. Street parking is available more easily starting at 6:30pm but can be difficult to find. Metro/metro bus on 16th street, or uber is best. The closest metro stop is Columbia Heights.
Juan Gómez Bárcena's is the Cheuse Center's Annual Writer-in-Residence from Spain, in collaboration with Spain Culture and Arts. Bárcena has degrees in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, History, and Philosophy. He is the prize-winning author of four novels and one collection of short fiction. Awards for his work include the City of Barcelona Prize, the Spanish National Radio Ojo Crítico Prize, and the Vanity Fair Prize for Best Novel of the Year. His work has been translated in eight languages and he has been recognized as one of the most outstanding authors of new Spanish prose. He lives in Madrid.
Lisa Page is co-editor of "We Wear The Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America" (Beacon Press). Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, LitHub Weekly, The Crisis, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Short Fiction, Playboy, the Washington Post Book World and other publications. She is assistant professor of English at the George Washington University and Director of Creative Writing. She previously served as Interim Director of Africana Studies. She is also a resident faculty member of the Yale Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Takoma Park, Maryland
About the Translator: Katie Whittemore translates from the Spanish. Her work has appeared in Two Lines, The Arkansas International, The Common Online, Gulf Coast Magazine Online, The Brooklyn Rail, and InTranslation. Current projects include novels by Spanish authors Sara Mesa, Javier Serena, Aliocha Coll, and Aroa Moreno Durán. She lives in Valencia.
About "Not Only the Dead": A claim of justice for the losers of history with echoes of authors as different as Joseph Conrad, Alejo Carpentier, and David Mitchell.
The conquest of Mexico is over, and Juan de Toñanes is one of so many soldiers without glory who roam like beggars for the land they helped subdue. When he receives one last mission, to hunt down a renegade Indian who’s called the Father and who preaches a dangerous heresy, he understands that this may be his last chance to carve himself the future he’s always dreamed of. But as he goes deep into the unexplored lands of the north following the Father's trace, he will discover the footprints of a man who seems not only a man, but a prophet destined to transform his time and even the times to come.
"Not Even the Dead" is the story of a persecution that transcends territories and centuries; a path pointing northward, always northward, that is to say, always toward the future, on a hallucinated journey from the sixteenth century New Spain to today's Trump wall. Old conquerors on horseback and migrants riding the roofs of the Beast, rebellious Indians and peasants waiting patiently for a better world, Mexican revolutionaries who take their rifles and women murdered in the desert of Ciudad Juárez, all pass by it. All of them share the same landscape and the same hope, the arrival of the Father who will bring justice to the oppressed.
Juan Gómez Bárcena. Credit: Isabel Wagemann
