Join Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, author of the National Book Award finalist The Undocumented Americans, in conversation with CMC’s own Maya Binyam, Visiting Instructor of Literature and author of Hangman, which was named a 2024 National Book Foundation “5 under 25” honoree. Cornejo Villavicencio’s The Undocumented Americans chronicles her own immigration story and profiles undocumented immigrants across the United States. Her debut novel, Catalina, is a national bestseller and has been longlisted for the National Book Award. Her work, which focuses on race, culture, and immigration, has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Elle, This American Life, n+1, The New Inquiry, and Vogue. She and Binyam will discuss the importance of challenging dominant narratives and stereotypes in her writing, as well as her experiences writing in both fiction and nonfiction.
Maya Binyam is the author of Hangman, which was named a 2024 National Book Foundation “5 under 35” honoree; won the Bard Fiction Prize and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. Her work has appeared in the Paris Review, the New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. She is currently a Visiting Lecturer in Literature at Claremont McKenna College. She lives in Los Angeles.
Ms. Cornejo Villavicencio's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by CMC's Center for Writing and Public Discourse, and by Chicano Latino Student Affairs (CLSA).
