Writing at the Border: Reflections on Groundswell

Yanara Friedland in a brown shirt leans agaist a brown wall

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In a transhistorical and transnational investigation of borderization, nationalism, and displacement in the Americas and Europe, Groundswell (Essay Press, 2021) investigates the voices and narrative possibilities of the border. For this reading and lecture, Yanara Friedland reflects on developing artistic methodologies that document border landscapes and the narratives they produce. How can testimony, archival work, and oral histories be translated into a literary context? How to engage the invisible landscapes of memory, trauma, and loss that linger at border sites? 

Speaker Name

Yanara Friedland

Date

Quarter

Fall

Speaker Bio

Yanara Friedland is a writer and translator born in Berlin. She is the author of two books, Uncountry: A Mythology (Noemi Press 2016) and Groundswell (Essay Press 2021). Matthes & Seitz published Uncountry (2021) in German translation and that of Groundwell is forthcoming (2022). She is the recipient of grants from the DAAD and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Recent work has appeared in Western Humanities Review, Asymptote, and Matters of Feminist Practice. She is Associate Professor at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Washington University.