photographCfP: Storytelling in the Spanish speaking world

International Conference for the ¡Vamos! Festival 2014

Location: Newcastle University
Time/Date: 20th June 2014 - 21st June 2014, 09:00 - 17:00

Call for papers (deadline 15 January 2014)
International Conference: 
Fiction, non-fiction and new journalism: The arts of storytelling in the Spanish speaking world

Newcastle University, 20 and 21 June 2014

In the past few decades, popular Anglo-Saxon genres such as the graphic novel and the so called new journalism or chronicle have had a very powerful development in the Spanish speaking world. This effervescence builds on a centuries-old tradition of chronicles, and matches a vibrant growth in other various fiction narrative formats in Spain, Latin America and the Hispanic USA. Thus, versatile chroniclers use gripping fiction-writing techniques to narrate the roughest realities, not concerning themselves with hard facts or statistics, but the way these worlds are lived by those immersed in them, with rich contextual descriptions and well developed characters. In turn, fiction writers introduce social commentary in their stories, aiming at informing and startling their audiences as well as to entertain them.  New formats are being tried out and independent publishing houses and vibrant online platforms are disseminating the work of writers from different countries, who have in turn attracted a wide and avid transnational audience, traversing North and South America and Europe.

This two day international conference invites papers examining any of the following issues or others relevant to this explosion of genres and narrative production: 

  •  Exploration of the different genres analysing one of several authors, one or several examples of graphic novels, chronicles, short or long stories. 
  • The formats or platforms of choice supporting the circulation of this form of production; technical and financial aspects of these operations.
  • Social Media, collaborative story-telling and journalism as process
  •  Local chroniclers and community sustainability
  •  Storytelling and collective memory
  •  Giving a voice to the voiceless? Challenging dominant narratives
  • Testimonial writing and new journalism
  • Journalism and football: fact, fiction and fanaticism
  •  The tension/collaboration between social sciences and journalism, particularly on the reporting and analysing current violence and corruption in Latin America.
  • Formal and aesthetic borrowing between genres
  • Contributions of literary analysis to the study of chronicles
  • The importance of place paired with the global nature of themes, where migration, traveling, bi-nationality, or the experience of the other are central part of the stories.
  • Performative aspects of the relationship between writers and their audiences
  • The arts of story-telling and the creation of spaces for critical reflection and denunciation of social and political issues. 

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Daniel Alarcón (1977) writer, journalist and radio producer is author of the story collection War by Candlelight, and Lost City Radio, named Best Novel of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Washington Post. His fiction, journalism and translations have appeared in Granta, McSweeney’s, n+1, and Harper’s, and in 2010 The New Yorker named him one of the best 20 Writers Under 40. Alarcón is co-founder of Radio Ambulante, a Spanish language storytelling podcast, and currently serves as a Fellow in the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism. He lives in San Francisco, California. His most recent novel, At Night We Walk in Circles, was published by Riverhead Books in October 2013.

Javier de Isusi  (1972) is author of comics or graphic novels. Among other series, he is the creator of the acclaimed Los viajes de Juan sin Tierra, the story of Vasco, a postmodern traveller in Latin America, where de Isusi reflects on his extensive travels sharing his observations of the complexities of life, hardships and hopes   of Latin Americans of all walks of life. Translations of his work have been published in Italy, France, Portugal and Finland.

Gabriela Wiener (1975) is a prolific, versatile and controversial writer, journalist, poet and performer who lives in Madrid. She contributes with the most renowned online platforms for the New Chronicle: Etiqueta Negra, Orsai, Anfibia and contributes with columns in  Esquire, Paula, El Pais, La Vanguardia, La Republica, among many others.  She is head editor of Marie Claire in Spain. Her chronicles have been published in collected editions of New Journalism Mejor que ficción. Crónicas ejemplares (Anagrama, 2012) y Antología de la crónica latinoamericana actual (Alfaguara, 2012).  She is the autor of Sexografias, Nueve Lunas and Mozart, la iguana con priapismo y otras historias  all aclaimed examples of gonzo journalism.

 
Please send a 200 word abstract to Patricia.Oliart@ncl.ac.uk by 15 January 2014. 

This conference is organised by the Americas Research Group, and is part of the ¡Vamos! Festival programme 2014 

Published: 20th September 2013