Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and Alonso Cueto engage in conversation

The City College of New York’s Cátedra Vargas Llosa, the first such resource in the United States, welcomes Spanish-language literary giants Mario Vargas Llosa and Alonso Cueto to a discussion on literature on Friday, Oct. 16. Entitled “A Conversation with Mario Vargas Llosa and Alonso Cueto," the chat starts at 6:30 p.m. in City College’s Faculty Club and Dining Room. It is free and open to the public.

 

The talk between Cueto, an award-winning Peruvian writer, and Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian-born 2010 Nobel laureate in literature, will be in Spanish. A question and answer session in both English and Spanish will follow.

 

Preceding the conversation will be a one-credit, three-day seminar led by Cueto under the auspices of CCNY’s Cátedra Mario Vargas Llosa. The course, “Mario Vargas Llosa: Knights and Dragons in Modern Times. The Tradition of Miguel de Cervantes," will meet on Oct. 13, 15 and 16. 

 

On the first day of the seminar, Oct. 13, Cueto will give a talk in Spanish entititled “Mario Vargas Llosa, lector de El Quijote," at 6:30 p.m. in the Rifkind Room, NAC 6/316. It is free and open to the public. Registration is, however, required to participate in the seminar. Click here to register.  

 

Launched in 2013, City College’s Cátedra Vargas Llosa is an international academic project honoring Mario Vargas Llosa. It serves as an interdisciplinary resource for the study of his writings and promotes emerging Spanish-language writers. 

 

The entire Cátedra program is presented by CCNY’s Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures in conjunction with the Instituto Cervantes and the Colonial Latin American Review.

 

About Alonso Cueto

Alonso Cueto’s work has been translated into 16 languages. Several of his novels have been made into movies. They include "Grandes Miradas,"dramatized under the title “Mariposa Negra” and named best Latin American movie in the Montreal festival; “La Hora Azul” and “Magallanes.” Among Cueto’s awards are the Anna Seghers Prize (Berlin, 2000), the Herralde novel prize (Barcelona, 2005), the British Society of Authors’ Valle Inclan prize for the English translation of “La Hora Azul” and a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation grant (2002-2003). His latest novel is "La Pasajera" (2015).  

 

About Mario Vargas Llosa

Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for his body of work in 2010, becoming the first Latin American writer to win since Octavio Paz in 1990 and only the sixth since the award was established in 1901. His 1963 novel, “The Time of the Hero,” which drew on his military school experiences, catapulted him onto the literary scene. Among his other well-known novels are “The Green House,” “Conversation in the Cathedral,” and the epic saga “War of the End of the World.” His writings have been translated into more than 30 languages. In 2010, City College awarded him the honorary degree Doctor of Letters.

 

About The City College of New York

Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.