A Sangre Fría: Fernanda Melchor, Veracruzano Modernism, & Lyrical Slang
European Review of Books
“Fernanda Melchor’s prose hits you square in the face. «If he regretted anything it was not having had the balls to kill them all: that prick Luismi, and, while he was at it, the hobbling loudmouth cunt Munra, and then get the hell out of that stinking, fag-infested town», the narrator says of the character Brando towards the end of Temporada de Huracanes (2017). The novel appeared in English as Hurricane Season in 2020, translated by Sophie Hughes, after more than eight reprints in its original Spanish. (I remember seeing passengers in the women-only cars of the Mexico City metro reading it almost daily.) Its rich, often aggressive language is a heightened form of Mexican quotidian speech, always vivid and very often vulgar.“
European Review of Books
“Fernanda Melchor’s prose hits you square in the face. «If he regretted anything it was not having had the balls to kill them all: that prick Luismi, and, while he was at it, the hobbling loudmouth cunt Munra, and then get the hell out of that stinking, fag-infested town», the narrator says of the character Brando towards the end of Temporada de Huracanes (2017). The novel appeared in English as Hurricane Season in 2020, translated by Sophie Hughes, after more than eight reprints in its original Spanish. (I remember seeing passengers in the women-only cars of the Mexico City metro reading it almost daily.) Its rich, often aggressive language is a heightened form of Mexican quotidian speech, always vivid and very often vulgar.“
illustration: Patrick Doan / ERB
Caroline Eaton Tracey writes about the environment, migration, and the arts in the US Southwest, Mexico, and their borderlands. She speaks and works in English, Spanish, and Russian. Her first book, SALT LAKES, will be published by W.W. Norton.
Caroline’s reporting appears in the New Yorker, n+1, New York Review of Books, High Country News, and elsewhere, as well as in Spanish in Mexico’s Nexos.
In 2022 she was awarded the Waterston Prize for Desert Writing and in 2023 she received Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Fellowship in Journalism and Human and Civil Rights and a Silvers Foundation Work-in-Progress grant.
Caroline holds a PhD in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives with her wife, Mexican architect and sculptor Mariana GJP, between Tucson, Arizona and Mexico City.
She is represented by Bridget Matzie of Aevitas Creative Management.
Caroline’s reporting appears in the New Yorker, n+1, New York Review of Books, High Country News, and elsewhere, as well as in Spanish in Mexico’s Nexos.
In 2022 she was awarded the Waterston Prize for Desert Writing and in 2023 she received Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Fellowship in Journalism and Human and Civil Rights and a Silvers Foundation Work-in-Progress grant.
Caroline holds a PhD in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives with her wife, Mexican architect and sculptor Mariana GJP, between Tucson, Arizona and Mexico City.
She is represented by Bridget Matzie of Aevitas Creative Management.
Caroline Eaton Tracey escribe sobre el medioambiente, la migración, el arte y la literatura en México, el Suroeste de Estados Unidos y su frontera. Habla ingles, español y ruso. Su primer libro, SALT LAKES, será publicado bajo el sello de la editorial W.W. Norton.
Sus artículos aparecen en The New Yorker, n+1, New York Review of Books y High Country News entre otros lugares. En español escribe frecuentemente para la revista Nexos.
En 2022 ganó el Premio Waterston por Escritura del Desierto y en 2023 recibió la beca Ira A. Lipman de periodismo de derechos humanos y civiles de Columbia University y una beca de la Fundación Silvers.
Caroline es Doctora en Geografía de la Universidad de California–Berkeley. Vive con su esposa, la arquitecta y escultora mexicana Mariana GJP, entre Tucson, Arizona y la Ciudad de México.
La representa Bridget Matzie de la agencia literaria Aevitas Creative Management.
Sus artículos aparecen en The New Yorker, n+1, New York Review of Books y High Country News entre otros lugares. En español escribe frecuentemente para la revista Nexos.
En 2022 ganó el Premio Waterston por Escritura del Desierto y en 2023 recibió la beca Ira A. Lipman de periodismo de derechos humanos y civiles de Columbia University y una beca de la Fundación Silvers.
Caroline es Doctora en Geografía de la Universidad de California–Berkeley. Vive con su esposa, la arquitecta y escultora mexicana Mariana GJP, entre Tucson, Arizona y la Ciudad de México.
La representa Bridget Matzie de la agencia literaria Aevitas Creative Management.