Daniel Alarcón is, quite simply, a storyteller. He is a fiction writer with two novels and two short story collections to his credit. He is also a journalist and radio producer: he is both a co-founder and host of Radio Ambulante, an innovative, long-form journalism podcast—the first of its kind in Spanish—that tells stories about life in Latin America and about Latin Americans, and that is distributed by NPR; he is the editorial director of El hilo, a weekly news podcast in Spanish that covers Latin America and the Latinx community in the United States; he is a contributing writer at The New Yorker; and so much more. Whether through creative writing or journalism, in print or audio format, in Spanish or in English, Alarcón has not just brought stories about Latin America and Latinx experiences to large audiences, he has helped to create new communities by bringing people together and engaging them in and with his work.
This event is free but tickets are required. Tickets are available at the BCT Box Office, at 114 E. Kirkwood Avenue in Bloomington, or online at buskirkchumley.org.
Born in Lima and raised in Birmingham, AL, Alarcón told the New York Times in 2013 that he is “an American writer writing about Latin America, and … a Latin American writer who happens to write in English.” His reputation, like his audience, is equally transnational: in 2007, he was named by the Hay Festival in Bogotá, Colombia, one of the top 39 writers under 39, while in 2010, The New Yorker named him one of their “Top 20 under 40.” Alarcón has received numerous other accolades, too, attesting to the power and reach of his work: a Fulbright Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; a PEN Literary Award for Fiction for his first novel, Lost City Radio (2007); and, most recently, a MacArthur Fellowship (2021).
In addition to his work with Radio Ambulante, El hilo, and The New Yorker, Alarcón is currently on the faculty at the Columbia School of Journalism.
Alarcón will offer a public presentation on his work, followed by an audience Q&A. This event is free and open to the public.
For information about tickets for large groups or classes, please contact Alex Teschmacher at cahi@indiana.edu.
The College of Arts