April 22nd @ Stanford

Alexandros put me onto this gig at Stanford.

He also put me onto this paper.

What it comes down to is this: ethnography is accountable to reality, while fiction is accountable to the story.

And somehow, I feel accountable to both, even when I’m making shit up. Pls don’t call it autofiction. That’s how they selling el mismo mojón in a different letrina.

I keep getting these backhanded compliments like, “your writing is so visceral. I felt it.” The subtext being: they felt it because I once felt it. As if I didn’t revise that shit a hundred times so you could feel it.

Anyway, I’ll be at Stanford trying to make sense of all this, how I write fiction but somehow ended up with three ethnographers into my top five: Maria Kromidas, Terry Williams, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc.

If you’re out there, pull up.

P.S. Most of the time it’s not that I’m remembering what happened to me so it can happen to my characters. Sometimes I’m trying to remember what I wrote happened to them while it’s happening to me. True story: I’m waiting on feedback from my agent about a funeral scene, thinking about how to make it better. I even consider going back to RG Ortiz’s Funeral Home to refresh my memory.

Then, about a month later, I’m arranging my grandmother’s funeral at RG Ortiz Funeral home. Finalizing details. Looking around the room, trying to take everything in, to remember it right.

But all I can think about is the form they hand me, asking for a brief description of her.

And instead of saying book lover, I say bibliophile.

One has three syllables. The other has four.

The truth is I should’ve said: book lover.

Between Life and Fiction: A Literary Salon Featuring Dominican-American Author and Educator JP Infante

Join us for a literary salon with Dominican-American author JP Infante. We hope to cultivate a discussion on writing about life and memory in the arts and across fields and disciplines. Infante will read briefly from his works, offer some comments on writing, and engage in a dialogue with participants.