“To read is to cover one’s face. And to write is to show it,” writes Alejandro Zambra in his semi-autobiographical novel, “Ways of Going Home.”
Zambra talked about his life, the political environment in Chile, his novel and the writing process during a lecture this afternoon. The discussion was part of UTRGV’s Festival of International Books and Arts.
FESTIBA began Monday and will end Saturday.
Creative writing Professor Steven Schneider moderated the panel. The author answered several questions by Schneider and later the audience. Afterward, attendees were able to interact with Zambra.
During the discussion, Zambra said he is a first-generation college graduate. He studied at Instituto Nacional and the University of Chile.
“What was your response to finding out that the [National Endowment for the Arts] selected your novel to be on the Big Read reading list? There are only about 30 books on the list,” Schneider asked.
Zambra replied he was thankful for being chosen to be part of the program.
“It was a big surprise,” he told attendees in the Shary Room of the University Library on the Edinburg campus. “I really liked the idea of the program. … You don’t write thinking that the book is going to be translated.”
The author said he respects the translated version of the work.
“To get to really write in a second language … it’s really hard. … To manage two languages with all the precision you need for writing fiction, I really respect that,” Zambra said.
Literary translator Megan McDowell has also translated Zambra’s 2010 work, “The Private Lives of Trees.” Regarding “Ways of Coming Home” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014), the author said McDowell made all of the final translation decisions.
Zambra’s first language is Chilean Spanish. He learned English as he grew older through poetry and music. Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot and Emily Dickinson are all poets whose works he enjoyed reading.
His novel was influenced by more than only writers.
“[The book is] about fighting between what you want to talk about and what you are allowed to talk about,” Zambra said. “At the same time, we were raised under dictatorship, and so we did know what was going on.”
He said there were comedic moments in the novel but most of it was serious.
“You are not supposed to laugh when you talk about this,” Zambra said, referring to Chile’s political situation. “That was absolutely more interesting to me than telling a joke.”
Zambra said he did not make his protagonist a hero.
“He is trying to talk about things that he experienced,” the author said. “He is sometimes … using the voice of other people.”
Cathryn Merla-Watson, an associate professor for the Literatures and Cultural Studies department, asked Zambra about magical realism in writing and “how you are using genre.”
“I think I’m always mixing things,” the author said. “And that might be postmodernism. … My last book is definitely very postmodern because it takes the form of a language test.”
It was difficult to understand this kind of writing because writers he liked, such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, had little to no magical realism.
Regarding his writing, Zambra said he wanted to be understood and to write about complex issues.
His writing has a political aspect. Dictatorship is never explicitly stated. However, details such as the houses being described as all similar, imply this. Zambra also described his books as “deceptively simple.”
He also spoke about how works can be personal.
“You are talking about your problems,” Zambra said.
The author also spoke about teaching creative writing and his experiences with running writing workshops.
“As a teacher, you have to take care of all [students],” he said.
Zambra thought running a creative writing workshop would be easy but found it difficult. He prefers nontraditional workshops and assigns writing exercises. The author liked to assign students to write about reading newspapers from the day they were born.
