Join Keila and Grisel for a conversation on what it means to create strong, assertive Latina characters that step outside of traditional gender roles.

“She is an artist in dialogue with her times and the times to come.”

Keila Vall de la Ville is a New York-based Venezuelan author, mother, and rock climber. Her novel Los días animales received the 2018 International Latino Book Awards and was translated into English as The Animal Days in 2021 by Katakana editores. She is also the author of several short story collections, including Ana no duerme, a finalist for Best Fiction Book in National Short Story Awards Monte Ávila Editores, Venezuela. She has published the poetry book Viaje legado and edited the bilingual anthology Between the Breath and the Abyss: Poetics on Beauty, a compilation of essays and poems by thirty-three contemporary poets. Forthcoming in the spring of 2022 is De cuando Corre Lola Corre dejó sin aire a Murakami. She studied anthropology and political science in Venezuela and has an MFA in creative writing from New York University, and an MA in Hispanic cultural studies from Columbia University.

“To be sure, Acosta will make you laugh and cry on this trip while she riffs with Lauryn Hill, becomes a poet of the Americas, and makes you grateful for every waking breath you take.”

Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta is a full professor at the City University of New York-BCC and the daughter of Colombian and Cuban immigrants. Her poetry collection, Things to Pack on the Way to Everywhere, was a 2020 finalist for the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, and is available from Get Fresh Books. She is the editor of the anthology, Latina Outsiders Remaking Latina Identity (Routledge, 2019). Other select work has been published in The Baffler, Gathering of the Tribes Magazine, Best American Poetry, Split this Rock, Kweli Journal, Acentos Journal, Celebrating 20 Years of Black Girlhood: The Lauryn Hill Reader, and Paterson Literary Review. She is a Geraldine Dodge Foundation Poet, a Macondo Fellow, and the Creative Writing Editor at Chicana/Latina Studies

Exploring Gender in Latinx Literature: Keila Vall de la Ville and Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta in conversation