Join our virtual classics book club this May as we read the sacred creation myth of the Maya, the Popol Vuh. Our conversation will be led by Ilan Stavans, author of Popol Vuh: A Retelling, an inspired new prose retelling of Latin America’s archetypal creation story, illustrated by Gabriela Larios.
Ilan Stavans is the publisher of Restless Books and Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. Restless Reads is hosted by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) and the Jones Library of Amherst, Massachusetts
As seminal as the Bible and the Quran, the Ramayana, the Odyssey, and Beowulf, the Popol Vuh barely survived the conquest of the Americas. It reaches us today as a vibrant tale of gods, heroes, and rebirth, with profound messages about the legacy of colonialism, whose stories are enshrined as archetypal, and how we can renew the world. We are excited to encounter the Popol Vuh with you.
When: Wednesday, May 26 at 8 pm ET
Where: via Zoom. Please register through the New York Public Library (you don’t need to be a patron to register).
About the Host
Ilan Stavans is the Publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Dictionary Days, The Disappearance, and A Critic’s Journey. He has edited The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature, the three-volume set Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, among dozens of other volumes. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Chile’s Presidential Medal, the International Latino Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award. Stavans’s work, translated into twenty languages, has been adapted to the stage and screen. A cofounder of the Great Books Summer Program at Amherst, Stanford, Chicago, Oxford, and Dublin, he is the host of the NPR podcast "In Contrast."
by Ilan Stavans
Illustrations by Gabriela Larios
Foreword by Homero Aridjis
2020 Foreword INDIES Gold Winner for Multicultural Fiction
2020 Mass Book Awards Must Read Fiction
An inspired and urgent prose retelling of the Maya myth of creation by acclaimed Latin American author and scholar Ilan Stavans, gorgeously illustrated by Salvadoran folk artist Gabriela Larios and introduced by renowned author, diplomat, and environmental activist Homero Aridjis.
Hardcover ISBN: 9781632062406
Publication date: Nov 10, 2020