Valeria Luiselli

×

Expand

Diego Berruecos/Gatopardo

Valeria Luiselli in front of a wall.

Valeria Luiselli

The novel Lost Children Archive, by Valeria Luiselli, was a staple of year-end best-ofs in 2019 (including the New York Times “10 Best Books” list). In 2024, the humanitarian crisis at the heart of the novel — the plight of young refugees trying to cross the southern border for a better life in America — continues unabated. Luiselli will discuss her work with UW professor Paola Hernández at this Humanities Without Boundaries talk, co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities and Wisconsin Book Festival.

media release: In an engaging Humanities Without Boundaries conversation, Lost Children Archive author Valeria Luiselli will talk about her latest novel and her writing process for both fiction and nonfiction works. Following the event, books will be sold on-site by A Room of One’s Own and are available for signing.

In conversation with Professor Paola Hernández. 

Luiselli’s visit and Lost Children Archive in Wisconsin are supported by the UW-Madison Libraries; the Cleary-Kumm Foundation; the Evjue Foundation; the Wisconsin Book Festival; the Anonymous Fund of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and the Brittingham Wisconsin Trust.

During the 2023-24 Great World Texts in Wisconsin program, high school teachers and students throughout the state are reading and engaging with Valeria Luiselli's 2019 novel Lost Children Archive, a fiercely imaginative follow-up to the American Book Award-winning Tell Me How It Ends.

In Lost Children Archive, an artist couple set out with their two children on a road trip from New York to Arizona in the heat of summer. As the family travels west, the bonds between them begin to fray: a fracture is growing between the parents, one the children can almost feel beneath their feet.

Valeria Luiselli was born in Mexico City and grew up in South Korea, South Africa, and India. An acclaimed writer of both fiction and nonfiction, she is the author of Sidewalks, Faces in the Crowd, The Story of My Teeth, Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions, and Lost Children Archive. She is the recipient of a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship and the winner of the International Dublin Literary Award, two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, the Carnegie Medal, an American Book Award, and has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Kirkus Prize, and the Booker Prize. She teaches at Bard College and is a visiting professor at Harvard University.

Launched in 2005, Great World Texts in Wisconsin connects high school teachers and students across the state with scholars at UW-Madison through the shared project of reading and discussing a classic piece of world literature. Drawing from world literature throughout the ages, the program’s selection of texts reflects a capacious understanding of the idea of the “literary classic.”

The program provides schools with complimentary copies of the text and extensive supporting curriculum materials, including a colloquium during which participating teachers work with UW-Madison faculty members on interpreting and understanding the text. Each participating school receives a stipend to participate in an Annual Student Conference during which students from all schools come together to share their creative responses to the text and hear from distinguished speakers.

Now in its nineteenth year, Great World Texts (GWT) has reached thousands of students and teachers in dozens of school districts throughout the state of Wisconsin.