5 Questions with Patricia Engel, Author of Infinite Country
Patricia Engel is the author of The Veins of the Ocean, winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; It's Not Love, It's Just Paris, winner of the International Latino Book Award; and Vida, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway and Young Lions Fiction Awards, New York Times Notable Book, and winner of Colombia's national book award, the Premio Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her stories appear in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and elsewhere. Born to Colombian parents, Patricia teaches creative writing at the University of Miami.
Patricia Engel is joined by Roberto Lovato, Jean Guerrero, and Juliana Delgado Lopera to celebrate the launch of her new novel Infinite Country, published by Simon & Schuster, in our City Lights LIVE! discussion series on Thursday, March 18th
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Where are you writing to us from?
I'm at my apartment in Miami, which has been my home base for the past seventeen years.
What’s kept you sane during the pandemic?
Gratitude for my good health and stability amid so much chaos and uncertainty. On the daily, it's long walks, sunlight, checking in with my husband, family and friends, sharing laughter and finding small reasons to celebrate life.
What are 3 books you always recommend to people?
Here are three by incredible Colombian writers: Oblivion (El olvido que seremos) by Hector Abad Faciolince, The Bitch (La perra) by Pilar Quintana, and Rosario Tijeras by Jorge Franco.
Which writers, artists, and others influence your work in general, and this book, specifically?
My general influences are those that arrived earliest in my life: Albert Camus, Anais Nin, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, Laura Restrepo, Maryse Condé, and Pablo Neruda, to name a few. With Infinite Country, I wanted to write a slim, compressed novel that spanned years, decades, and generations, but still felt urgent, like a single held breath. Books that I admire that accomplish that are Sula by Toni Morrison, In the Beginning was the Sea by Tómas González, Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín, The Lover by Marguerite Duras, and Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector.
If you opened a bookstore, where would it be located, what would it be called, and what would your bestseller be?
This is one of my quiet dreams. I'm not sure where I would open it but I would probably name it after one of my childhood cats, Camus. Certain bestsellers, because I would likely push them on every customer, would be Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat and Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
