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Dr. Encinar Organizes Literary Conference on Zúñiga

Writers, scholars, students and literature enthusiasts met at Madrid’s Instituto Cervantes to pay respect and to celebrate the author Juan Eduardo Zúñiga in a two-evening event entitled El Siglo de Zúñiga.”

Juan Eduardo Zúñiga

On January 24, 2019, Madrid-born writer Juan Eduardo Zúñiga turned 100 years old. Ángeles Encinar, Ph.D., (Spanish) organized "El Siglo de Zúñiga," a two-evening literary conference at the Instituto Cervantes to honor his life and his works. 

Organized and facilitated by SLU-Madrid Spanish literature professor, Ángeles Encinar, Ph.D., the event honored Zúñiga on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Encinar considers Zúñiga, who authored texts such as "El Coral y las Aguas" and "Inútiles Totales," to be among the most influential Spanish writers in both the 20th and 21st centuries.

During the first evening session, Encinar was joined by writer Luis García Montero, who described Zúñiga as a “capturer of images and situations,” a master of the art of highlighting social issues through literary quality work.

García Montero went on to introduce the participants in the writer’s roundtable: Almudena Grandes, Luis Mateo Díez (a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Language), Manuel Longares and Emilio Lledó (a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Language). Each of the two evening sessions concluded with a theatrical interpretation of one of the author’s short stories.

On the second evening, academics Luis Beltrán Almería, Natalia Arséntieva, José María Pozuelo Yvancos and Santos Sanz Villanueva joined Encinar at the professor’s roundtable to share their own research and views on both Zúñiga and his texts.

Encinar said Zúñiga is “a master of narration.” She concluded that he powerfully showcases the human condition by comparing it to reality. Encinar recently published a new edition of the author's work under the publishing house Ediciones Cátedra.