Rosa Beltrán


Rosa María Beltrán Álvarez is a Mexican novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. She was the deputy director of La Jornada Semanal from 1999 to 2002 and has been a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores from 1997 to 2000. She was the director of the Literature department at the UNAM and is currently the chair in Coordinación de Difusión Cultural at UNAM. On June 12, 2014, she was appointed as a member by the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua as the 36th Chair, becoming the tenth woman to hold this position.

Biography

Beltrán, born in Mexico City in 1960, has a BA in the Hispanic Language and Literatures from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a PhD in Comparative Literature from University of California, Los Angeles. She was awarded with funding from FONCA in 1991, from CME in 1993, and from the Fulbright Program.
She has taught courses and seminars in Mexico and abroad and delivered keynote addresses at numerous associations and universities, including ACLA, UCLA, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Colorado, Ramon Llull and others. She has coordinated and led graduate-level classes in Comparative Literature at the UNAM's Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, and she served as director of the Casa Universitario del Libro. Her articles on literature and culture have appeared in several magazines worldwide and she contributes to the Revista de la Universidad and to Laberinto, the cultural supplement of the newspaper Milenio. As part of her admission speech to the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua in 2014, she discussed the ongoing relevance of the novel Cartucho, by Nellie Campobello, and the author's astute reflections on the state of contemporary Mexico. In 2021, she was invited by the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán to deliver the keynote address “Pandemia, arte y literatura” in commemoration of this institution's 75-year anniversary. Her essay, which chronicles the global quarantine and the experience of art over the first 18 months, will be published alongside other texts on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beltrán's work has been translated into Slovenian, French, English, Italian, and Dutch; included in multiple national and international anthologies; and recognized by numerous associations, such as the American Association of University Woman for her work and contributions to literature written by women. In 1997 she won the Florence Fishbaum Award for her essay collection América sin americanismos/Re-evaluating the Idea of the Americas: Utopic, Dystopic and Apocalyptic Paradigms. Other awards include the Premio Planeta–Joaquín Mortiz de Novela 1995 for La corte de los ilusos; Premio Jóvenes Académicos de la UNAM 1997 in the category of creative writing; Reconocimiento Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz from the UNAM; and, recently, the 2022 José Emilio Pacheco Award granted by the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán in conjunction with the FILEY and UC-Mexicanistas. Her books have been the subject of essays and theses, and all of her novels have been reissued, some more than once. She is the author of the novels La corte de los ilusos, El paraíso que fuimos, Alta infidelidad, Efectos secundarios, El cuerpo expuesto, and Radicales libres. She is also the author of the short story collections Amores que matan and Cuentos darwinianos and of the book-length essay Verdades virtuales. In collaboration with other authors, she wrote, El nacimiento del monstruo, El cuerpo femenino y sus narrativas, and Jamás despejar las incógnitas. In 2021, the FCE published her chronicle Acuérdate de Acapulco in Cuadernos del Viento.
Her novel Radicales libres sold out two months after its publication in 2021 and is forthcoming in an English translation by Robin Myers to be co-published by Hablemos, escritoras and Katakana Editores. Her Cuando las palabras no eran las cosas is forthcoming from Caminos de la Lectura. Cómo y por qué empezamos a leer. She is currently working on the essay collection La mujer del escritor. She coordinated the anthology Sólo cuento, volumes I to X, as well as Crónica y Ensayo, published by the Dirección de Literatura, UNAM.
She has published texts in specialized and popular magazines such as the Revista de la Universidad de México; Revista Claustro de Sor Juana; Nexos; Gatopardo; Proceso; Hispanofila, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Revista Fundación Veracruzana; Revista: PMLA ; Casa de las Américas; Literal Latin American Voices; Revista Luvina; Revista Quién; and Revista ELLE, among others. Her interviews, critical articles, and reviews have appeared in La Jornada, el Universal, El País, La Provincia, El Norte '', Reforma, and Viceversa, among others. Rosa Beltrán, Efectos literarios y el arte de narrar, ed. Oswaldo Estrada, Bonilla Artiga Editores, a book on her work is coming soon.
In March 2020, she launched her project Conver@as, a podcast on the literature and themes encompassed by pandemics and quarantines throughout history. As a cultural manager, she has organized series, literary festivals, and book fairs for over twelve years. In 2009, she started the festival Fiesta del Libro y la Rosa, which has been held continuously since its inauguration, including two virtual editions in 2020 and 2021 with the participation of authors from all over the world. From 2016 until the pandemic, she and Mónica Lavín co-directed the program “Contraseñas” on Canal 22.
Beltrán has taught at UCLA, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ramon Llull University, University of Colorado and currently teaches in the graduate program in comparative literature at UNAM. She was deputy director of La Jornada Semanal and is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. She has worked for Milenio's cultural supplement, Laberinto.'' Beltrán currently serves as Director of Literature, Coordination of Cultural Outreach at the UNAM, one of the most important cultural centers and educational institutions in the Spanish-speaking world.

Awards and honors

  • 1984, creative writing grant. Judges: Jaime del Palacio and Alejandro Rossi, INBA.
  • 1988, ITT-Fulbright. Fellowship for MA studies in Comparative Literature at UCLA.
  • 1990, doctoral fellowship from the Dirección General de Asuntos de Personal Académico.
  • 1991, Comparative Literature, UCLA, Award for Academic Excellence .
  • 1991, funding from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.
  • 1991, Latin American Center, UCLA, award for the best research project "Re-evaluating the Idea of the Americas: Utopic, Dystopic and Apocalyptic Paradigms".
  • 1992, American Association of University Women, award for work written by women and women's participation in culture.
  • 1993, fellowship from the Centro Mexicano de Escritores.
  • 1995, Premio Planeta-Joaquín Mortiz de Novela for her book La corte de los ilusos.
  • 1997, Premio Jóvenes Académicos de la UNAM for creative writing.
  • 1997, Premio Florence Fishbaum for her essay “América sin americanismos.”
  • 1998, Premio Universidad Nacional para Jóvenes Académicos.
  • 2000, Creative writing grant, Sistema Nacional de Creadores.
  • 2000-2003, invitation to a residency at The Writers Room in New York.
  • 2011, Reconocimiento Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, granted by the UNAM.
  • 2016, named a member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua, chair XXXVI. Unanimous election.
  • 2017, Medalla Presea a la Excelencia, IX Festival de Aniversario, Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Cajeme de Cd. Obregón.
  • 2017, The Annual Distinguished Alumni Lecture, UCLA Spanish and Portuguese Department.
  • 2019, Medalla al Mérito Académico, 25 years, Aula Magna de la Faculta de Filosofía y Letras.
  • 2022, Premio Excelencia en las Letras José Emilio Pacheco 2022, granted by the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán through the FILEY.

Publications

Novels

La corte de los ilusos El paraíso que fuimos Le Paradise C’etait Nous Alta infidelidad El cuerpo expuesto
  • ''Radicales libres''

Short stories

La espera Amores que matan Optimistas Cuentos darwinianos. Rosa Beltrán, Colección Narrativa Caminante Fernando del Paso, Ficción infantil/juvenil: cuentos, relatos cortos, Letras para volar, Programa Universitario de Fomento a la Lectura. Disco Voz Viva, Amores que matan. Cuentos darwinianos. Rosa Beltrán, Colección Voz Viva de México Material de Lectura, No. 137, Cuento Contemporáne.'' Rosa Beltrán

Essays

Beltrán's essays include the following.América sin americanismos. El lugar del estilo en la época Mantis. Sentido y verdad en la cultura literaria posmoderna
  • ''Cómo y por qué empezamos a leer''

Chronicles

  • ''Acuérdate de Acapulco''