On Monday, November 28th, 2022 Isaac Rosa participated in a conversation with MSU faculty and students in a virtual meeting. Isaac Rosa (b. Sevilla, 1974) is one of the leading novelists and most critical literary voices of his generation. Rosa’s latest novel Lugar seguro/Safe Place won the 2022 Premio Biblioteca Breve, one of the most prestigious literary prizes awarded annually by the Catalan publishing house Seix Barral to a novel written in Spanish that is submitted prior to its publication to a blind jury of esteemed writers.

During the virtual event, we touched upon many of the crises facing our world today such as the climate crisis, perpetual economic crises, an on-going crisis of care, new political and energy crises, and perhaps the most important crisis of all: a profound crisis of imagination when it comes to envisioning a non-dystopic collective future, which was precisely what inspired Rosa to write Lugar seguro.

This virtual conversation was held in conjunction with SPN 412: Critical Approaches to Ecology, Economics & Care in Contemporary Spain and was open to anyone interested in thinking “beyond apocalypse.”  See the attached flyer and information below for more details about the event.

Lugar seguro is available for purchase as a hard copy or as an e-book from multiple on-line vendors. It is not necessary to have read the book in order to enjoy this rare opportunity with one of Spain’s most important contemporary writers.

Special thanks to the Department of Romance & Classical Studies for hosting this event with generous co-sponsorship from the Department of English’s Creative Writing Program, the Center for European, Russian & Eurasian Studies, and the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies.

The video recording of this meeting can be found here