Susana Ch獺vez-Silverman

Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures
With 91做厙 Since: 1989
Susana Chavez-Silverman
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Susana Ch獺vez-Silvermans bilingual memoir, Killer 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃s: Bilingual Memories (UWP 2004), was described by Publishers Weekly as not a memoir written outside the box; it is a memoir written to obliterate it. Shes the author of a second bilingual creative nonfiction volume, Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters (UWP 2010). Both books, along with Ch獺vez-Silvermans performed readings have been praised as groundbreaking work that makes artistic use of the overlap between Spanish and English (and various in-betweens), sometimes termed Spanglish or code-switching. Her brazenly bilingual (and sometimes polyglot) 釵娶籀紳勳釵硃莽 have been widely published in online and print journals and anthologies, such as the inaugural Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2010) and in Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing (2011). Heartthrob: del Balboa Cafe al Apartheid and Back (2019) constitutes her definitive life story (hasta ahora).

    As a scholar of Latin American and U.S. Latinx literature, she co-edited Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad (UPNE/Dartmouth 1997) and Reading and Writing the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American and Spanish Culture (Wisconsin 2000). She has published on Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik, as well as on other Latin American and U.S. Latinx authors. Her teaching and research interests include: poetry and poetics, gender and queer sexualities studies, memory, trauma, life writing, and alternative or minor literary genres (epistolary, diary, memoir, email and text messages).

    Research Interests

    • Latin American and U.S. Latinx Literature and Culture
    • Poetry
    • Queer Sexualities in Latinx American Cultures & Literatures

    Areas of Expertise

    SPANISH

    • Latin American and U.S. Latina-o/Chicana-o Literature and Culture
    • Poetry
    • Queer Sexualities in Latina-o/Latina-o American Cultures & Literatures.
  • Work

    Work

    Books

    (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019).

    (University of Wisconsin Press, 2010)

    (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004).

    Co-editor, with L. Hernandez, Reading and Writing the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American and Spanish Culture. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000)

    Co-editor, with F.R. Aparicio, Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad. (Dartmouth: University of New England Press, 1997).

    With M.C. McDonald, La poesia espanola e hispanoamericana: Evolucion y analysis. (Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 1983).

    Audio Recordings

    Audio Recordings from Killer 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃s, read by the author (October 2010). Visit:   

    Audio recordings from Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters, read by the author (June 2010). Visit: 

    Journal articles/釵娶籀紳勳釵硃莽

    CROWN 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃 in The Great Dis-Equalizer: the COVID-19 Crisis, a special double curated issue of PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. Vol. 17, No. 1-2, Dec. 2020 (113-115).

    Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana: An International Journal of Literature and Culture. Contemporary Queer Writing in English and Spanish in the Americas. Special Issue. Guest Editors: Claudia Salazar Jim矇nez & Larry La Fountain-Stokes, vol.16, 2020 (107-112).

    Otro (mi) Modo de Ver 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. Contrapuntos VI, Ed. Marcos Pico  Renter穩a (January 2019).

    Selections from Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters, reprinted by permission in Dear Los Angeles: The  City in Diaries and Letters, 1542-2018. David Kipen, Ed. New York: Modern Library, 2018.

    After The Turn of the Screw/Lifes a Peach 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. PORTAL,  Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, vol. 15, no. 1-2, August 2018.

    Axolotl/Bichos Raros 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃s. Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana. Special Issue: Gestos de la Memoria/Gestures of Memory.  Seven Latin American/Latina Writers of Jewish Origin in the U.S. Guest Editor: Carlota Caulfield. N繳m/Issue 14, 2018 (December 2017), 93-95 (reprinted by permission of PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies).

    Cono Sur Mitzvah 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana. Special Issue: Gestos de la Memoria/Gestures of Memory. Seven Latin American/Latina Writers of Jewish Origin in the U.S. N繳m/Issue 14, 2018 (December 2017), 89-92 (from Killer 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃s: Bilingual Memories, reprinted by permission of UWP).

    Explosi籀n Suave/GIFT 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana. Special Issue: Gestos de la Memoria/Gestures of Memory. Seven Latin American/Latina Writers of Jewish Origin in the U.S. N繳m/Issue 14, 2018 (December 2017), 96-98.

    Ambig羹edad en el Sur 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. InterAlia: A Journal of Queer Studies. Special Issue: Entre Otros/as: Perspectivas Queer en el mundo hisp獺nico. No. 12, July 2017 (279-282).

    Southern Ecotone: Magnetic-Domestic 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. InterAlia: A Journal of Queer Studies. Special Issue: Entre Otros/as: Perspectivas Queer en el mundo hisp獺nico. No. 12, July 2017 (283-286).

    . PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, April 2017. Cultural Works: Transitions and Dislocations.

    . PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies vol. 14, no. 1, April 2017. Cultural Works: Transitions and Dislocations.

    . PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, vol. 13, No. 1, January 2016. The Transcultural Edge, curated by Ilaria Vanni Accarigi.

    and . TEXTOS HIBRIDOS Vol. 4 (2015) / ISSN: 2157-0159

    . Translation by Ellen C. Jones.  Asymptote (July 15, 2015).

    (revised and reprinted with permission). PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies vol. 11, no. 2, July 2014.

    Heart Hold On 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃 and Nina/Nahla Chrismy 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. Zona De Carga/Loading Zone. August 2014 (print and online).

    , Teensy Ex Africa 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃 and Astral Logic 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃.  PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies vol. 11, no. 1, January 2014 (published August 2014).

    Interview in Things We Do Not Talk About: Exploring Latino/a Literature through Essays and Interviews. Daniel A. Olivas. San Diego State UP, June 2014; 155-57.

    and The Artist in/and Me 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies Vol 9, No 2 (2012): Imagined Transcultural Histories and Geographies

    Magnetic Island Sue簽o 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. Revised version reprinted by permission in Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing. L獺zaro Lima and Felice Picano, Eds. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011 (159-64).

    Killer 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. Reprinted by permission in the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Ed. Ilan Stavans. 2010.

    Essays in Containment: Another Look at Madness and its Displacements Chez Pizarnik. Alejandra, ed. Ivonne Bordelois and Pedro Cuperman (New York/Buenos Aires: Syracuse University Press/Editorial Paid籀s, 2010), pp. 58-77.  The volume is a special issue of Point of Contact 10:1-2.

    Book Chapters

    Killer 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. Reprinted by permission in the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Ed. Ilan Stavans. 2010.

    Gender, Sexuality and Silence(s) in the Writing of Alejandra Pizarnik. Arbol de Alejandra: Pizarnik Reassessed. Fiona Mackintosh, ed., with Karl Posso. (England: Tamesis, 2007: 13-35).

    Killer 唬娶籀紳勳釵硃. In Lengua Fresca: Latinos Writing on the Edge. Eds. Harold Augenbraum and Ilan Stavans. (Boston & New York: Mariner/Houghton Mifflin, 2006), 33-40.

    "Alicia Gaspar de Alba," in Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States, (D.J. Gonzalez and S. Oboler, eds., Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

    Gendered Bodies and Borders in Contemporary Chican@ Performance and Literature. Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture & Chicana/o Sexualities. Ed. Alicia Gaspar de Alba. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003), 215-227.

    La osad穩a del imaginar femenino: eros y est矇tica en Noche estrellada. Memorial de una escritura: Aproximaciones a la obra de Marjorie Agos穩n. Ed. Emma Sep繳lveda. (Santiago, Chile: Cuarto Propio, 2003), 137-151.

    "The Poetry of Octavio Paz and Alejandra Pizarnik." Jewish Culture and the Hispanic World: Essays in Memory of Joseph H. Silverman. Eds. S.G. Armistead and Mishael Caspi. (Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 2001), 129-143.

    "La funci籀n de lo er籀tico en la poes穩a de Marjorie Agos穩n y Alicia Gaspar deAlba." La Poes穩a Hisp獺nica de los Estados Unidos: aproximaciones cr穩ticas. Eds. Lilianet Brintrup, Juan Armando Epple, and Carmen de Mora. (Seville, Spain: Universidad de Sevilla Press, 2001), 89-104.

    Alejandra Pizarnik. Whos Who in Gay and Lesbian History. Eds. Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon. (London: Routledge, 2001).

    Tropicalizing the Liberal Arts College Classroom. Power, Race, and Gender in Academe: Strangers in the Tower? Eds. Mar穩a Herrera-Sobek and Shirley Geok-lin Lim. (New York: MLA, 2000), 132-153.

    The Autobiographical as Horror in the Poetry of Alejandra Pizarnik. Critical Studies on the Feminist Subject in the Americas. Ed. Giovanna Covi. (Trento, Italy: Universit獺 degli Studi di Trento,1997), 265-277.

    "The Look that Kills: The 'Unacceptable Beauty' of Alejandra Pizarnik's La condesa sangrienta ." 聶Entiendes? Queer Readings, Hispanic Writings. Eds. Emilie L. Bergmann & Paul Julian Smith. (Duke University Press, 1995), 281-305.

  • Education

    Education

    1991, Ph.D., Spanish
    University of California, Davis

    1979, Master of Arts, Romance Languages and Literatures
    Harvard University

    1977, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude
    University of California, Irvine

    Recent Courses Taught

    El deseo de la palabra: Poetry or Death

    From the Boom to Literatura Lite: Gender/Genre in Latin Amer. Lit/Culture

    Intro to Literary Analysis

    Tropicalizations

  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    2nd place for Best Autobiography in the (for Heartthrob: del Balboa Cafe al Apartheid and Back) 

    Lucas Artist Program, Artist in Residency Fellowship (Montalvo Arts Center), 2008 (awarded 2006).

    El andar magazine, First Prize for Personal Memoir, "Anniversary Cr羅nica," 2002.

    National Endowment for the Humanities; Fellowship, 2000-2001; Summer Research Grants, 1992, 1993, and 1998-2000, 2002-2007; Sabbatical Research Grant, 1993-1994.