An Evening with Catalina Infante and Translator Michelle Mirabella

Join us for a talk on THE CRACKS WE BEAR by Catalina Infante! She will join us via Zoom and we will have the translator, Michelle Mirabella, in person. We will begin the evening with translator only questions, with the author joining us at 7:30p. Following the conversation, we will have Q&A with the audience. The translator will be available to sign books, if desired. After reserving your spot, you will be able to submit a question you have for the author.

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About the book:

"Chilean writer Infante's penetrating English-language debut centers on a woman coping with the challenges of new motherhood while reflecting on her late mother. This slim and subtle work packs a stinging punch."-Publishers Weekly

Motherhood is terrifying, thinks Laura, feeling small and helpless as she holds her newborn daughter. Instead of joy, she feels fear, and then anger at her own late mother for her absence. The Cracks We Bear opens as a story about new motherhood. Soon, however, it reveals itself to be an exploration of memory and trauma as Laura starts to recall her childhood in Chile. Born in exile to staunchly communist parents, she returns to Chile with her mother after the collapse of the Pinochet dictatorship. In the fledgling democracy she grows up in, topics of capitalism and communism are ever present. Laura's reflections, born from personal experience, are interwoven with raw and honest memories of her family life. Borrowing elements from the Bildungsroman, and pulling from the Latin American short story tradition, Catalina Infante recounts Laura's past in vignettes. Piece by piece, the short chapters come together like a reconstructed vase, bearing its cracks.

About the author:

Catalina Infante Beovic is a Chilean writer, publisher, and co-owner of Librería Catalonia in Chile. She has written three books of stories of the indigenous peoples of Chile with Sonia Montecino, anthropologist and recipient of the Chilean National Social Sciences Award. She made her English-language debut in 2020 with the story "Ferns," which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and adapted into film. The Cracks We Bear is Infante Beovic’s first full-length novel translated into English. Find more of her work at www.catalinainfantebeovic.com.

About the translator:

Michelle Mirabella is a Pittsburgh-based Spanish-to-English literary translator. In addition to her translation of Catalina Infante's debut novel, The Cracks We Bear, her work appears in the anthologies Best Literary Translations (Deep Vellum, 2024) and Daughters of Latin America (HarperCollins, 2023). A former ALTA Travel Fellow, Michelle holds an M.A. in Translation and Interpretation from the Middlebury Institute and is an alumna of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre and the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference. Find more of her work at www.michellemirabella.com.

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