Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. It tells the story of the author's lineage of curanderos, or shamans, and her mother, who was the first woman in her family to become a curandera. The book won a Medal in Nonfiction from the California Book Awards, was a National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, and was long-listed for a Carnegie Medal in Excellence in Nonfiction. It was named a “Best Book of the Year” by TIME, People, NPR, Vanity Fair, Boston Globe, among others.
What are you working on these days?
I am working on a non-fiction journalism piece, a short column on immigration, and a new novel! I enjoy switching back and forth between genres.
What’s your workshop style, and what can people expect at Lit Fest?
I call workshop a writing lab, and put an emphasis on experimentation, and treating the work as something that is still being imagined, rather than finished. I run a workshop that centers the author of the work and the author’s vision. I like to decenter the rest of us in the classroom—our taste, our preferences, and opinions (since these can be as varied as we are multiple, and considering many of us may not even be the intended main audience for a work)—and instead focus on craft and what the author wants to do with a particular piece. Our work is in colluding with the author, and helping them achieve the vision in their minds. We discuss when a piece is achieving what the author intended, when it isn’t, and sometimes we discuss what the piece itself wants to be, when there seems to be too much veering away from the author’s intention.
If you could only bring three books with you on a deserted island, which ones would you choose, and why?
I would bring Franz Kafka’s Completed Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges’ Completed Fictions, and maybe… The Complete Works of William Shakespeare?
What’s one artist or writer more people should know about?
Hmmm! Maybe since we all need lightness, I recommend the music of Sarah Davachi. Very intensely calming.
At Lit Fest this summer, Ingrid Rojas Contreras will be teaching her Advanced Weeklong Nonfiction Workshop: Truth in Nonfiction. Interested in working with her? Apply today!
To learn more about Lit Fest, tuition, fellowships, and advanced class admittance, click here.
