From the Archives : Cristina Rivera Garza : The Taiga Syndrome & The Iliac Crest
episode
Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry
1h 50m
1 speaker
4 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Today's episode of Between the Covers is brought to you by the nonprofit press Phonograph Editions. This year, Phonograph celebrates its tenth anniversary and And since their first releases in 2016 by Eileen Miles and Ray Armantraut, the press has put out over fifty-five projects spanning genres and mediums, LPs, EPs, and cassettes, alongside chapbooks, broadsides, and full length books. In 2026 alone, Phonograph is releasing 10 full-length titles from both canonical and debut authors. To help carry the press into its next ten years, Phonograph is raising twenty thousand dollars, and thanks to a generous donor. Every gift made in twenty twenty six will be matched up to ten thousand, doubling your impact on independent publishing.
Give at the friend level and you'll receive a year of membership, your name printed in the colophon of every 2027 Phonographs Edition release. And a tenth anniversary broadside. Higher tiers include back catalog selections, broadsides featuring poems by Eileen Miles, Brandon Shimoda, Mark Leidner. and Alice Knotley, and some even help fund an entirely new book or record. If you believe in publishing that moves between the page and the record player, head to phonographeds.com slash support and make a tax deductible donation today. That's phonographed.com slash support. Today's episode is also brought to you by Water in the Desert, a pilgrimage, by acclaimed agrarian activist and ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan.
Celebrated as a world visionary by Utney Reeder and a lyrical poet of biodiversity by Mother Jones, Gary Paul Nabhan has authored dozens of books and been awarded a MacArthur Genius grant. Water in the Desert is a profoundly inspiring account of interspecies belonging to Collaborative conservation and the sacred work of caring for the earth. He traces his childhood growing up as a Lebanese American boy in the dunes along Lake Michigan's southern shore to his interest in earth-based spiritual practices that led him to take vows as an ecumenical monk. A refreshing account of kinship with other species, water in the desert, brings science to the service of land and culture, showing up what it looks like to reciprocate the gifts of nature with gifts of head, hands, and heart, writes Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass.
Water in the Desert is now available for pre-order from milkweed.org. Today's conversation is an archival one from 2019. It's Christina Rivera Garza's first appearance on the show. And really the year she began being more deeply engaged with in the Anglophone world, I think. She hadn't yet won the MacArthur Genius Grant, which happened the following year, nor the Pulitzer, which happened five years later. But like the first time I talked with Viet Tan Win prior to all of his accolades, I knew I was talking to a particular and unusually dynamic intellect and writer. This is what Christina herself shared on her blog back in 2019 after we talked. This conversation with David Naaman is about writing, translation, the Taiga syndrome, politics, women's voices, the Iliad Crest, writing in Spanish in the United States, teaching, cross genre, launching the first PhD with a concentration in creative writing in Spanish.
Juan Rulfo Second Languageness Speculative Fiction Translating Fred Motin and Don Miche. Taking the streets and more. Lastly, before we start, if you subscribe to the Bonus Audio Archive, there's a long form conversation with preeminent Spanish language translator Suzanne Jill Levine. About translating Christina's work. To learn more about how to subscribe to the bonus audio. and all the other potential benefits and rewards of joining the Between the Covers community as a listener supporter, whether receiving the resources and references related to each and every episode, or becoming a milkweed early reader, and much more. Head over to patreon.com slash between the covers. And now for today's archival episode
With none other than Cristina Rivera Garza.
Good morning and welcome to Between the Covers. I'm David Nayman, your host.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–22:24
2
What is the archival conversation about Cristina Rivera Garza’s early work and its significance?
22:24–59:46
3
How does The Taiga Syndrome explore the detective plot and the concept of a psychic syndrome?
59:46–1:20:40
4
Why does Garza emphasize translation, versioning, and linguistic mediation in her novels?
1:20:40–1:49:15