Susana Ch谩vez-Silverman

Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures
With Pomona Since: 1989
Susana Chavez-Silverman
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Susana Ch谩vez-Silverman鈥檚 bilingual memoir, Killer 颁谤贸苍颈肠补s: Bilingual Memories (UWP 2004), was described by Publisher鈥檚 Weekly as 鈥渘ot a memoir written outside the box; it is a memoir written to obliterate it.鈥 She鈥檚 the author of a second bilingual creative nonfiction volume, Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters (UWP 2010). Both books, along with Ch谩vez-Silverman鈥檚 performed readings have been praised as groundbreaking work that makes artistic use of the overlap between Spanish and English (and various in-betweens), sometimes termed 鈥淪panglish鈥 or code-switching. Her brazenly bilingual (and sometimes polyglot) 肠谤贸苍颈肠补蝉 have been widely published in online and print journals and anthologies, such as the inaugural Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2010) and in Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing (2011). Heartthrob: del Balboa Cafe al Apartheid and Back (2019) constitutes her definitive life story (hasta ahora).

    As a scholar of Latin American and U.S. Latinx literature, she co-edited Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad (UPNE/Dartmouth 1997) and Reading and Writing the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American and Spanish Culture (Wisconsin 2000). She has published on Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik, as well as on other Latin American and U.S. Latinx authors. Her teaching and research interests include: poetry and poetics, gender and queer sexualities studies, memory, trauma, life writing, and alternative or 鈥渕inor鈥 literary genres (epistolary, diary, memoir, email and text messages).

    Research Interests

    • Latin American and U.S. Latinx Literature and Culture
    • Poetry
    • Queer Sexualities in Latinx American Cultures & Literatures

    Areas of Expertise

    SPANISH

    • Latin American and U.S. Latina-o/Chicana-o Literature and Culture
    • Poetry
    • Queer Sexualities in Latina-o/Latina-o American Cultures & Literatures.
  • Work

    Work

    Books

    (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019).

    (University of Wisconsin Press, 2010)

    (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004).

    Co-editor, with L. Hernandez, Reading and Writing the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American and Spanish Culture. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000)

    Co-editor, with F.R. Aparicio, Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad. (Dartmouth: University of New England Press, 1997).

    With M.C. McDonald, La poesia espanola e hispanoamericana: Evolucion y analysis. (Pretoria: University of South Africa Press, 1983).

    Audio Recordings

    Audio Recordings from Killer 颁谤贸苍颈肠补s, read by the author (October 2010). Visit:   

    Audio recordings from Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters, read by the author (June 2010). Visit: 

    Journal articles/肠谤贸苍颈肠补蝉

    鈥淐ROWN 颁谤贸苍颈肠补鈥 in 鈥淭he Great Dis-Equalizer: the COVID-19 Crisis,鈥 a special double curated issue of PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies. Vol. 17, No. 1-2, Dec. 2020 (113-115).

    Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana: An International Journal of Literature and Culture. Contemporary Queer Writing in English and Spanish in the Americas. Special Issue. Guest Editors: Claudia Salazar Jim茅nez & Larry La Fountain-Stokes, vol.16, 2020 (107-112).

    鈥淥tro (mi) Modo de Ver 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 Contrapuntos VI, Ed. Marcos Pico  Renter铆a (January 2019).

    Selections from Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters, reprinted by permission in Dear Los Angeles: The  City in Diaries and Letters, 1542-2018. David Kipen, Ed. New York: Modern Library, 2018.

    鈥淎fter 鈥楾he Turn of the Screw鈥/Life鈥檚 a Peach 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 PORTAL,  Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, vol. 15, no. 1-2, August 2018.

    鈥淎xolotl/Bichos Raros 颁谤贸苍颈肠补s.鈥 Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana. Special Issue: Gestos de la Memoria/Gestures of Memory.  Seven Latin American/Latina Writers of Jewish Origin in the U.S. Guest Editor: Carlota Caulfield. N煤m/Issue 14, 2018 (December 2017), 93-95 (reprinted by permission of PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies).

    鈥淐ono Sur Mitzvah 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana. Special Issue: Gestos de la Memoria/Gestures of Memory. Seven Latin American/Latina Writers of Jewish Origin in the U.S. N煤m/Issue 14, 2018 (December 2017), 89-92 (from Killer 颁谤贸苍颈肠补s: Bilingual Memories, reprinted by permission of UWP).

    鈥淓xplosi贸n Suave/GIFT 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana. Special Issue: Gestos de la Memoria/Gestures of Memory. Seven Latin American/Latina Writers of Jewish Origin in the U.S. N煤m/Issue 14, 2018 (December 2017), 96-98.

    鈥淎mbig眉edad en el Sur 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 InterAlia: A Journal of Queer Studies. Special Issue: Entre Otros/as: Perspectivas Queer en el mundo hisp谩nico. No. 12, July 2017 (279-282).

    鈥淪outhern Ecotone: Magnetic-Domestic 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 InterAlia: A Journal of Queer Studies. Special Issue: Entre Otros/as: Perspectivas Queer en el mundo hisp谩nico. No. 12, July 2017 (283-286).

    鈥.鈥 PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, April 2017. Cultural Works: Transitions and Dislocations.

    鈥.鈥 PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies vol. 14, no. 1, April 2017. Cultural Works: Transitions and Dislocations.

    鈥.鈥 PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, vol. 13, No. 1, January 2016. The Transcultural Edge, curated by Ilaria Vanni Accarigi.

    鈥溾 and 鈥.鈥 TEXTOS HIBRIDOS Vol. 4 (2015) / ISSN: 2157-0159

    鈥.鈥 Translation by Ellen C. Jones.  Asymptote (July 15, 2015).

    鈥溾 (revised and reprinted with permission). PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies vol. 11, no. 2, July 2014.

    鈥淗eart Hold On 颁谤贸苍颈肠补鈥 and 鈥淣ina/Nahla Chrismy 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 Zona De Carga/Loading Zone. August 2014 (print and online).

    鈥,鈥 鈥淭eensy Ex Africa 颁谤贸苍颈肠补鈥 and 鈥淎stral Logic 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥  PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies vol. 11, no. 1, January 2014 (published August 2014).

    鈥淚nterview鈥 in Things We Do Not Talk About: Exploring Latino/a Literature through Essays and Interviews. Daniel A. Olivas. San Diego State UP, June 2014; 155-57.

    鈥溾 and 鈥淭he Artist in/and Me 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 PORTAL, Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies Vol 9, No 2 (2012): Imagined Transcultural Histories and Geographies

    鈥淢agnetic Island Sue帽o 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 Revised version reprinted by permission in Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing. L谩zaro Lima and Felice Picano, Eds. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2011 (159-64).

    鈥淜iller 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 Reprinted by permission in the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Ed. Ilan Stavans. 2010.

    鈥淓ssays in Containment: Another Look at Madness and its Displacements Chez Pizarnik.鈥 Alejandra, ed. Ivonne Bordelois and Pedro Cuperman (New York/Buenos Aires: Syracuse University Press/Editorial Paid贸s, 2010), pp. 58-77.  The volume is a special issue of Point of Contact 10:1-2.

    Book Chapters

    鈥淜iller 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 Reprinted by permission in the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Ed. Ilan Stavans. 2010.

    鈥淕ender, Sexuality and Silence(s) in the Writing of Alejandra Pizarnik.鈥 Arbol de Alejandra: Pizarnik Reassessed. Fiona Mackintosh, ed., with Karl Posso. (England: Tamesis, 2007: 13-35).

    鈥淜iller 颁谤贸苍颈肠补.鈥 In Lengua Fresca: Latinos Writing on the Edge. Eds. Harold Augenbraum and Ilan Stavans. (Boston & New York: Mariner/Houghton Mifflin, 2006), 33-40.

    "Alicia Gaspar de Alba," in Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States, (D.J. Gonzalez and S. Oboler, eds., Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

    鈥淕endered Bodies and Borders in Contemporary Chican@ Performance and Literature.鈥 Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture & Chicana/o Sexualities. Ed. Alicia Gaspar de Alba. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003), 215-227.

    鈥淟a osad铆a del imaginar femenino: eros y est茅tica en Noche estrellada.鈥 Memorial de una escritura: Aproximaciones a la obra de Marjorie Agos铆n. Ed. Emma Sep煤lveda. (Santiago, Chile: Cuarto Propio, 2003), 137-151.

    "The Poetry of Octavio Paz and Alejandra Pizarnik." Jewish Culture and the Hispanic World: Essays in Memory of Joseph H. Silverman. Eds. S.G. Armistead and Mishael Caspi. (Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 2001), 129-143.

    "La funci贸n de lo er贸tico en la poes铆a de Marjorie Agos铆n y Alicia Gaspar deAlba." La Poes铆a Hisp谩nica de los Estados Unidos: aproximaciones cr铆ticas. Eds. Lilianet Brintrup, Juan Armando Epple, and Carmen de Mora. (Seville, Spain: Universidad de Sevilla Press, 2001), 89-104.

    鈥淎lejandra Pizarnik.鈥 Who鈥檚 Who in Gay and Lesbian History. Eds. Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon. (London: Routledge, 2001).

    鈥淭ropicalizing the Liberal Arts College Classroom.鈥 Power, Race, and Gender in Academe: Strangers in the Tower? Eds. Mar铆a Herrera-Sobek and Shirley Geok-lin Lim. (New York: MLA, 2000), 132-153.

    鈥淭he Autobiographical as Horror in the Poetry of Alejandra Pizarnik.鈥 Critical Studies on the Feminist Subject in the Americas. Ed. Giovanna Covi. (Trento, Italy: Universit谩 degli Studi di Trento,1997), 265-277.

    "The Look that Kills: The 'Unacceptable Beauty' of Alejandra Pizarnik's La condesa sangrienta ." 驴Entiendes? Queer Readings, Hispanic Writings. Eds. Emilie L. Bergmann & Paul Julian Smith. (Duke University Press, 1995), 281-305.

  • Education

    Education

    1991, Ph.D., Spanish
    University of California, Davis

    1979, Master of Arts, Romance Languages and Literatures
    Harvard University

    1977, Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude
    University of California, Irvine

    Recent Courses Taught

    El deseo de la palabra: Poetry or Death

    From the Boom to Literatura Lite: Gender/Genre in Latin Amer. Lit/Culture

    Intro to Literary Analysis

    Tropicalizations

  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    2nd place for Best Autobiography in the (for Heartthrob: del Balboa Cafe al Apartheid and Back) 

    Lucas Artist Program, Artist in Residency Fellowship (Montalvo Arts Center), 2008 (awarded 2006).

    El andar magazine, First Prize for Personal Memoir, "Anniversary Cr霉nica," 2002.

    National Endowment for the Humanities; Fellowship, 2000-2001; Summer Research Grants, 1992, 1993, and 1998-2000, 2002-2007; Sabbatical Research Grant, 1993-1994.