How do writers locate their identities, and what responsibilities do they have with the communities they identify with? Award-winning journalist and author Achy Obejas will talk about these questions and more in a conversation with WBEZ’s Natalie Moore. 

Achy Obejas, Achy Obejas is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Ruins (Akashic Books, 2009) and three other books of fiction. Her poetry chapbook, This is What Happened in Our Other Life (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2007), was both a critical favorite and a best-seller. She edited and translated, into English, Havana Noir (Akashic Books, 2007), a collection of crime stories by Cuban writers on and off the island. Her translation, into Spanish, of Junot Díaz’ The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead, 2009)/ La Breve y Maravillosa Vida de Óscar Wao (Vintage/Mondadori) was a finalist for Spain’s Esther Benítez Translation Prize from the national translator’s association (a rare honor for a Latin American). Her most recent translation projects, into English, are Barcelona Noir (Akashic Books, 2011), a collection of crime stories based in the Spanish metropolis, and a novel, One Hundred Bottles by Ena Lucía Portela (University of Texas Press). With Megan Bayles, she was awarded a fellowship to develop a Chicago-based online anthology for young women from Columbia College’s Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women & Gender in the Arts & Media. She is a member of the Editorial Board of In These Times, the editorial advisory board of the Great Books Foundation, and a blogger for WBEZ.org.

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