The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures will host Anna Lidia Vega Serova, a Cuban-Russian writer, for a talk titled “Moving across Cultures: Writing between Russia and Cuba” Tuesday, Sept. 24, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Clark Hall, Room 206.
About the talk
Many bi-national Russian-Cuban writers and intellectuals are part of the community of the Cold War sons and daughters. They are a living testimony to the strategic geopolitical alliances created across the globe during those years.
Anna Lidia Vega Serova, who comes from Cuba, is a writer and a painter born in Leningrad, Russia, in 1968, to a Cuban father and a Russian/Ukrainian mother. Soon after her birth, she moved to Cuba with her parents, living intermittently between Cuba and Russia, and finally settling on the island. Currently, she lives in Havana.
She has been oscillating between two languages (Russian and Spanish), and two countries (Russia and Cuba) most of her life. In her writing, she explores this dichotomy. This event is intended to address the importance of establishing and advancing dialogues across cultures and languages.
She has published novels, short story collections, poetry and children’s stories, and she has won many literary prizes and competitions.
Her books of short stories include:
- Bad Painting (1998 and 2013),
- Catálogo de mascotas [Catalog of Mascots] (1999);
- Limpiando ventanas y espejos [Cleaning Windows and Mirrors] (2001);
- Imperio doméstico [Domestic Empire] (2005);
- Legión de sombras miserables [Legion of Miserable Shadows] (2005);
- El día de cada día [Every Day’s Day] (2006);
- Mirada de reojo [A Quick Glance] (2010); and
- Estirpe de papel [Paper Lineage] (2013).
Her stories have been included in many anthologies.
She has also published the novels: Noche de Ronda [Nightly Rounds] (2002) and Ánima fatua [Fatuous Spirit] (2007 and 2011).
Her collections of poetry include Retazos de las hormigas para los malos tiempos [Ants’ Hoardings for Hard Times] (2004) and Eslabones de un tiempo muerto [Links to a Dead Time] (2006 and 2013).