Salvador Plascencia
Picador Guest Professor in the summer semester of 2023
Salvador Plascencia was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and grew up on the outskirts of Los Angeles. He is the author of the cult favorite The People of Paper, named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and Financial Times. The People of Paper has been translated into a dozen languages and widely anthologized and adopted in Chicanista, postmodern, and design courses. His writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, Lucky Peach, Tin House, and the Los Angeles Times. He teaches fiction writing at Harvey Mudd College. At the Institute for American Studies at the University of Leipzig, Salvador Plascencia teaches two seminars.
Salvador Plascencia and Nancy Campbell in conversation with Svenja Gräfen
Picador Guest Professor Salvador Plascencia met Samuel Fischer Guest Professor Nancy Campbell for a conversation about the art of writing and the interplay of design and literature. Svenja Gräfen hosted the conversation that took place on June 8 at the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig. Photos by Andreas Lamm.
Salvador Plascencia was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and grew up on the outskirts of Los Angeles. He is the author of the cult favorite “The People of Paper”, named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and Financial Times. “The People of Paper” has been translated into a dozen languages and widely anthologized and adopted in Chicanista, postmodern, and design courses. T.C. Boyle said, “The People of Paper is a novel like no other… Calvino, Borges, and García Márquez will come to mind, but Plascencia’s novel is a creature of its own, firmly grounded and soaring at the same time.” Plascencia’s writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, Lucky Peach, Tin House, and the Los Angeles Times. He teaches fiction writing at Harvey Mudd College.
Nancy Campbell is a Scottish writer, described by the former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy as ‘a deft, dangerous and dazzling poet writing from the furthest reaches of both history and climate change’. In 2020 she received the prestigious Ness Award from the Royal Geographical Society for her environmental writing, including works of non-fiction (“The Library of Ice”), poetry (“Disko Bay”) and artist’s books (“How to Say ‘I Love You’ in Greenlandic,” winner of the Birgit Skiöld Award). A memoir, Thunderstone, was published in summer 2022. Nancy’s writing has been commissioned by many arts and heritage organisations including the Royal Academy, the British Library, the BBC, the National Poetry Library and World Book Night.
Svenja Gräfen is a novelist and non-fiction writer based in Leipzig. In 2017, their debut novel “Das Rauschen in unseren Köpfen” was published by Ullstein fünf. The second novel “Freiraum” followed 2019. Their first non-fiction book “Radikale Selbstfürsorge. Jetzt!” was published by Eden Books in 2021.
read-write-design-read-write-design took place on June 8 at the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst in Leipzig. The photos were taken by Andreas Lamm.
The event is a collaboration between the Samuel Fischer Guest Professorship and the Picador Guest Professorship and took part for the 25th anniversary celebration of the Samuel Fischer Guest Professorship.
Partners of #PicadorProf are: the University of Leipzig, DAAD, the U.S. publisher Picador and Holtzbrinck Berlin – Inspire Together. Partners of #sfischerprof are: Freie Universität Berlin, DAAD, S. Fischer and Holtzbrinck Berlin – Inspire Together.
