An Evening with Cristina Rivera Garza, Pulitzer Prize–winning Mexican Author

The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection presents an evening with Cristina Rivera Garza, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Liliana’s Invincible Summer and MacArthur Fellow. The Benson has recently acquired the archive of the renowned author, critic, and translator.

Rivera Garza won a Pulitzer Prize in 2024 for Liliana’s Invincible Summer, originally published in Spanish as El invencible verano de Liliana (2021). She has been the recipient of Mexico’s most prestigious literary accolades, including the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, which she won twice.

The book “represents one of the author's most intimate and politically charged works,” said Lauren Peña, Head of Collection Development at the Benson. “It serves as a tribute to her younger sister, Liliana Rivera Garza, who was tragically murdered by her ex-boyfriend in the summer of 1990. Written decades later, the book functions both as an act of remembrance and a form of literary justice.”

This event is free and open to the public. An audience Q&A will follow the author’s remarks, and will be moderated by Professor Celeste González de Bustamante, director of the Center for Global Change and Media at the Moody College School of Journalism and Media, and chair of the LLILAS Mexico Center.