Gabriela Etcheverry


Gabriela Etcheverry is a Chilean-Canadian writer, translator and literary critic who is also known for her role in Hispanic-Canadian cultural life.

Biography

Etcheverry was born in a poor district of Coquimbo in Chile. She worked as a teacher in the capital Santiago where she married.
She arrived in Canada with little skill in either French or English. She however received her PhD in literature at Laval University, Quebec. She has two MA degrees from Carleton University, Ottawa. She taught courses in language, literature, culture and civilization at Carleton University and at other agencies in Ottawa, Canada, and currently works in translation and interpretation. She has published novels, short stories, poems, essays, reviews and reports.
As a literary critic, cultural promoter and co-director of the Red Cultural Hispánica she has organized conferences on Hispano-Canadian authors and hosted other literary events. Etcheverry runs a literary magazine and a children’s multilingual publishing house. She is on the board of a trilingual academic/literary publisher.
In 2008, Etcheverry won first prize in the "nuestra palabra" short story competition. Titled Nuestra palabra in Spanish, it was translated into English as Our Words. Her autobiographical novel Latitudes describes how while pregnant she moved to Canada to escape Pinochet's dictatorship. Some of its themes are continued in her more recent collection of short stories, The Breadfruit Tree. Her literary work suggests the "ambivalent identity" and "double affiliation" of someone with strong ties to two different countries. Some of her work can be seen as "migration literature". For example, in her novella El Regreso there is a "metaphorical parallel between the return to the mother's house with the migratory return of an exile".
Etcheverry has spoken at various Canadian conferences relating to immigration, and created theatrical pieces about migration and about women's experiences of torture in Chile which have been presented in various different settings. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration invited her to visit schools to discuss experiences of migration with students, sharing poetry, stories etc., as part of a program called Passages to Canada.

Works

Novels

  • 2012. Latitudes. Ottawa. Qantati eBooks.
  • 2008. De vuelta al pueblo/Coquimbo en tres tiempos . Passages of the novella "El regreso " and context. La Cita Trunca, January 1.
  • 2007.Latitudes La Serena, Chile: Split Quotation.

Short stories

  • 2013. L'arbre à pain et autres contes. Translated by Yvonne Klintborn. Toronto: Antares.
  • 2013. The Breadfruit Tree and other stories. Toronto: Antares.
  • *Review by Kevin Clinton, Festival of Images and Words, Dec. 9, 2013. Online.
  • 2011. El árbol del pan y otros cuentos. Ottawa: Split Quotation.
  • 2010 Añañuca. Illustrated by Jillian Lim. Ottawa: Qantati Junior, 2010. children’s book.
  • *Review by Arturo Mendez Roca for EcoLatino.
  • Stories from the collection "El árbol del pan ":
  • *2008 Josefina, Mundo en Español, January.
  • *2007 Homero Mundo en Español, December.
  • *2007 El fotógrafo Mundo en Español, November.
  • *2005 Oración por todos Alter Vox, November.
  • *2005 La Milonga Coquimbo Times, February.
  • *2005 Amador, La Cita Trunca, July 29.
  • *2005 Ema. La Cita Trunca, April 27.
  • Stories from the collection "Tú y yo" :
  • *2008 "Tres mini cuentos ", La Cita Trunca,January:
  • **Pareja
  • **Enamorada
  • **Pesadilla .

Poetry

  • 2006 "Tres poemas urbanos ", La Cita Trunca, June 15:
  • *Terry Fox
  • *Primavera en Ottawa
  • *Toronto.
  • 2005 Se te quedó en el tintero La Cita Trunca, Nov. 11th.
  • 2005 El canto del cardinal La Cita Trunca, May 20.
  • 2005 La Muda La Cita Trunca, Nov. 21st.
  • 2002 Once de septiembre del 2001 . Alter Vox, January.
  • 1989 Espantapájaros . Reembou 1.

Literary criticism

  • 2011. Nela Rio. Escritura en foco: la mirada oblicua. Ottawa: Qantati, 2011. E-book.
  • 2008. Claudio Duran, Childhood and Exile in Claudio Durán, La infancia y los exilios/ Childhood and Exile, of Claudio Durán.
  • 2007 " Influencia de la cultura de los años sesenta en la temática de la obra Vida, de Gonzalo Millán . Boreal . Boreal Symposium
  • 2006 Preface to Tres lotos en un mar de fuego , Camila Reimers.
  • 2005 Review of MicroQuijotes. Selection and prolog of Juan Armando Epple. La Cita Trunca, Aug. 4th.
  • 2005 Voces y silencio . Note to the poem collection Una tierra extraña by Julio Torres-Recinos. La Cita Trunca, April 6th.
  • 2003 Overview of the thematic evolution in the feminine Spanish-Canadian literature. Boreal Symposium.
  • 2002 La cordura de las locas mujeres of Gabriela Mistral" Symposium in homage to Gabriela Mistral sponsored by the Autonomous University of Mexico in Hull, Canada.
  • 2001 Review of Crisol del tiempo y Nosotros , books of poems by Julio Torres. Alter Vox.
  • 1995 Chilean Poetry Is Alive and Well in Canada: Women’s Voices. Arc: Canada's National Poetry Magazine 35. Article.
  • 1994 Preface to El 39° fragmento del clan of Nieves Fuenzalida.

Other

  • 2007 Adiós Mariquita Linda o la metamorfosis de Pedro Lemebel. June 26.
  • 2007 Children of War y la masacre en el Instituto Politécnico de Virginia. La Cita Trunca, June 22.
  • 2006 Día de los refugiados, día de vergüenza para la humanidad La Cita Trunca, June 20.
  • 2006. La píldora del día después . La Cita Trunca, April 2.
  • 2006 Irak tres años después . La Cita Trunca, March 20.
  • 2005 Las rotas chilenas ''. La Cita Trunca, July 13.