Romancero Books with the support of the Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Spanish Embassy in London and AC/E Programme for the Internalisation of Spanish Culture presents the III Festival of Queer Literature in Spanish in London - FQLSL
Breakfast with Lys
This is an intimate breakfast gathering with author Lys Duval and her translator into English Alice Banks.
We will be talking about Madrid will be their tomb, her first book translated into English and published by Fum D'estampa Press.
Madrid will be their tomb
Two occupied buildings: one the former headquarters of the NO-DO (a Francoist propaganda outlet) that has been taken over by a small group of fascists, the other the ruins of some abandoned film studios that have been converted into the barracks of a Marxist-Leninist cell. Drifting between these two spaces are Santiago and Ramiro; two characters who, although finding solace in two polarised political groups, cross paths and change each other’s lives. Discursive and devastating, Duval’s first novel is imbued with the same traits as the era she portrays. A sad, passionate, and all too real portrait of an ever more divided world, Duval’s story, in her powerful, shocking, yet considered prose, reminds us of the uncomfortable, but somewhat comforting similarities we may find with the “enemy”.
‘Duval narrates disorder and subversion with a writing which is sometimes contained, sometimes runaway, sometimes ironic and sometimes poetic. Modest and powerfully beautiful, this is writing which illuminates human mystery and lifts the reader into the air, leaving them on an edge where their convictions tremble and shake.’
—JUAN MANUEL DE PRADA. ABC.
‘A marvellous novel.’
—NADAL SUAU, EL ESPAÑOL.
Lys Duval
Elizabeth Duval was born in Alcalá de Henares in 2000 and graduated in Philosophy and Modern Literature from the Sorbonne in Paris. She has published the collection of poems Excepción (2020), the novels Reina (2020) and Madrid will be their tomb(2021), and the essays After the Trans (2021) and Melancolía (2023). She was a spokesperson for Sumar's Feminisms, Equality and LGTBI+ Rights and Freedoms in the 2023 general elections. She is a regular contributor to media outlets such as eldiario.es, La Sexta, Público, El País , CTXT , and RTVE 's Playz .
Alice Banks
Alice Banks is a translator from Spanish and French based in Madrid. After graduating from the MA in Literary translation at the University of East Anglia, Alice began working as a freelance translator. She has published a number of short stories and extracts, namely ‘Nino in the Night’ by Capucine and Simon Johannin, which appeared in the anthology Voices from the Outside, as well as ‘I was the happiest girl in the world’, by Paula I. Nogales Romero and ‘Kain with a C’, by Alicia Llarena, which both appeared in the short story collection, An Island of Stories. In December 2022, Alice’s translation, Deranged As I Am, by Ali Zamir, was published by Fum d’Estampa Press. Alice is currently working on a translation of Elizabeth Duval’s novel Madrid será la tumba, which will be published in Autumn 2023. When she is not translating, Alice also works as a publisher at Fum d’Estampa Press and an Editorial Assistant for The European Literature Network, where she writes the monthly column, ‘La Española’. More recently with the European Literature Network, she worked as Assistant Editor on The Spanish Riveter magazine, to which she also contributed several translations and articles.
Breakfast will be provided, please let us know about any dietary requirements.
Event in English.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the end of the conversation.
Check the Festival's website to know about other events
https://bit.ly/FLQEL2023
