RESIDUAL HISTORIES: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROJECT WORKSHOP 

with JULIÁN HERBERT

This class is limited to seven students and will be presented in English.

$60  

This workshop will center around residual narratives: the stories, histories, and fragments constructed by flâneuring, Instagram captions, infra-ordinary observations (with a nod to George Perec), and more.

For many, the pandemic has meant confinement that has not only limited contact, but also what we see on a daily basis. How do we learn to look for the histories embedded in our domestic spaces? How do we learn to name and define the marks on our daily experiences—the residual histories of the spaces we occupy and the memories which occupy us. How do we confront and address the residual racism inherent in these spaces?

 In this workshop, we’ll discuss these questions in the context of a project that includes multiple artistic expressions, perspectives, and possibly collaborations. We’ll write, and we’ll rewrite.

Julián Herbert was born in Acapulco in 1971. He is a writer, musician, and teacher, and is the author of Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino, The House of the Pain of Others, Tomb Song (all translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney) as well as several volumes of poetry and two story collections. He lives in Saltillo, Mexico.

Titles in translation by Julián Herbert

BRING ME THE HEAD OF QUENTIN TARANTINO

by Julián Herbert, translated by Christina MacSweeney. Published by Graywolf Press, 2020

“Why read this review when you could be reading Julián Herbert’s Bring Me the Head of Quentin Tarantino instead? I don’t know. But in case my opening question has not yet convinced you, here follow some of the many reasons you should turn immediately to reading Herbert’s newly translated story collection.” — Gabriel García Ochoa for the Harvard Review

The House of the Pain of Others

by Julián Herbert, translated by Christina MacSweeney. Published by Graywolf Press, 2019

“While [The House of the Pain of Others] is very much about a specific series of events, Herbert never loses sight of the larger implications of this behavior, or the way in which it echoes across nations and cultures. . . . The House of the Pain of Others stands as memorial and warning, and its reach crosses borders and oceans.”—Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Tomb Song

By Julián Herbert, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney, Published by Graywolf Press, 2018

“One of the most powerful books written in Spanish in the last decade.” Daniel Saldaña París, author of Among Strange Victims