University Of Houston: Berlin Prize Fellow

Bellaire TX

08 June, 2022

6:07 PM

Description

Press release from the University of Houston: UH Distinguished Professor Cristina Rivera Garza Awarded Berlin Prize Fellowship for Spring 2023 By Shawn Lindsey University of Houston creative writing professor and award-winning author Cristina Rivera Garza is one of only 10 recipients of the Berlin Prize for spring 2023. The semester-long fellowship is awarded annually to top-tier scholars, writers, composers and artists who are from or live in the United States. "This is such a prestigious award, one that will allow me to build conversations across disciplines with top American scholars and authors in a city burgeoning with cultural and social activity," said Rivera Garza, M.D. Anderson Distinguished Professor and director of the UH doctoral program in creative writing in Spanish. "I am sincerely grateful and elated about this opportunity." The American Academy in Berlin recently granted a total of 20 Berlin Prizes — 10 for fall 2022 and 10 for spring 2023. According to the academy, the fellows, who are selected by an independent committee, "will pursue a wide array of scholarly and artistic projects." "Professor Rivera Garza is a leader in her field and this honor is well deserved," said Paula Myrick Short, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. "She continues to write thought-provoking works on urgent topics, stimulating international conversations. Her talents as a teacher, researcher and writer have a lasting impact on our creative writing students." Rivera Garza became a writer to explain her world to herself, often finding it difficult to understand. Her work explores the tension, conflict and drama she sees and the historical experiences that illuminate these enigmas. Rivera Garza teaches graduate seminars and workshops on the role of "capitalocene" on contemporary writing practices. "Capitalocene," she said, refers to the era of capitalistic endeavors disrupting our landscape and planet. It inspired her latest work, "Geological Writings," a selection of essays about this topic, which will be published later this year by Iberoamericana Vervuert Press. "She continues to write thought-provoking works on urgent topics, stimulating international conversations."Paula Myrick Short, UH Sr. VP Academic Affairs and Provost Rivera Garza has authored fiction and nonfiction novels, short stories and poetry and will use the Berlin Prize Fellowship to work on her new project "The Solanum Tuberosum Diaries," a nonfiction creative work exploring family history in the context of the demise of potato production in the Toluca Valley in Central Mexico. "In 'The Solanum Tuberosum Diaries,' I use my father's field notes from his participation in wild potato collecting expeditions throughout Mexico during the late20th century to explore the environmental and family consequences of neoliberal policies imposed on the rural world," said Rivera Garza. "It is a creative nonfiction project very close to my heart and one that may be able to critically illuminate the origins and, above all, the concrete, local effects of policies that blatantly disregard climate change." Read more >> This press release was produced by the University of Houston. The views expressed here are the author's own.