Mario Vargas Llosa, one of Latin America’s leading writers and literary critics, will visit Dickinson College and the Carlisle community on Wednesday, Dec. 3, and Thursday, Dec. 4, to give lectures and participate in a book signing.
Vargas Llosa, the 2008 recipient of The Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program award at Dickinson College, will give lectures on Wednesday, Dec. 3, at 7 p.m., at the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium on West Louther Street, and on Thursday, Dec. 4, at noon, in the Rubendall Recital Hall in the Weiss Center for the Arts on West High Street. Both events are free and open to the public.
Vargas Llosa will hold a book signing on Dec. 3 at 4 p.m. at the Whistlestop Bookshop at 129 West High Street in Carlisle. Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian novelist, playwright, essayist, journalist and literary critic, is one of Latin America's leading authors of his generation. Some critics consider him to have had a larger international impact and worldwide audience than any other writer of the Spanish-American literary boom. Llosa rose to fame in the 1960s with novels such as “The Time of the Hero” (1963), “The Green House” (1965) and “Conversation in the Cathedral” (1969). He continues to write prolifically across an array of literary genres, including literary criticism and journalism. His novels include comedies, murder mysteries, historical novels and political thrillers. Several, such as “Captain Pantoja and the Special Service” (1973-78) and “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter” (1977), have been adapted as feature films.
Like many Spanish-American authors, Vargas Llosa has been politically active throughout his career. Over the course of his life, he has gradually moved from the political left toward the right. While he initially supported the Cuban revolutionary government of Fidel Castro, Vargas Llosa later became disenchanted. He ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990 with the center-right Frente Democrático coalition, advocating neoliberal reforms.
The Harold and Ethel L. Stellfox Visiting Scholars and Writers Program was established by Dickinson alumna Jean Stellfox, class of 1960, in honor of her parents. Previous guests at Dickinson through the Stellfox program are Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee, U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove, and British novelist and Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan.