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Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture

The Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture Series was established after the Library Foundation received a gift from the estate of Marian McFadden, Director of Public Libraries in Indianapolis from 1945-1956. This annual author lecture series, which typically takes place in the Spring, was named in her honor. Learn more about additional author events The Library hosts throughout the year.

2023 Lecturer
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Bestselling novelist and British Fantasy Award and Locus Award winning author Silvia Moreno-Garcia was the featured speaker at our 44th Annual Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture that took place September 28, 2023.

Silvia's lecture inlcuded a detailed and engaging discussion of magical realism, as well as an examination of the limiting perceptions and impressions of Latin American literature that result when readers do not have a lot of context, often a single experience reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. This limited experience reduces the whole of Latin American literature to a single writer.

"You might be like, I want to learn more! I want to expand my horizons, so here are some tips from me about how you can read Latin American literature and maybe have a better experience if you haven’t explored it much."

  • Admit you don’t know everything and be humble.
  • Explore a wide range of authors, time periods, and aesthetics.
  • Literature is an ever-evolving field.
  • Boxes are for carrying books, not for enclosing them.
  • Confusion is not bad. It is OK to not know how to feel.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia Recommends

If you haven't explored Latin American literature very much, here are some recommendations Silvia shared to help you get started!

Monstrilio

Sámano Córdova, Gerardo

Horror. Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased eleven-year-old son's lung, nurturing it until in gains sentience, and hides this carnivorous little Monstrilio in the walls of her family's decaying Mexico City estate, but Monstrilio's innate impulses threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.

Our Share of Night

A Novel

Enriquez, Mariana

Horror. In 1981, a young father and son set out on a road trip across Argentina, devastated by the mysterious death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travels to her family home near Iguazú Falls, where they must confront the horrific legacy she has bequeathed.

Ten Planets

Stories

Herrera, Yuri

Science Fiction. Drawing on science fiction, noir, and the philosophical parables of Jorge Luis Borges's Fictions and Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics, this collection features fantastical stories in which monsters and aliens abound, but knowing who is the monster and who is the alien is a tricky proposition.

Past Lecturers:

  • 2023 - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • 2022 - Kadir Nelson
  • 2021 - Cancelled due to COVID-19
  • 2020 - Cancelled due to COVID-19
  • 2019 - Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • 2018 - Jeff Kinney
  • 2017 - Junot Díaz
  • 2016 - Jacqueline Woodson
  • 2015 - Khaled Hosseini
  • 2014 - David Wiesner
  • 2013 - Ann Patchett
  • 2012 - Mo Willems
  • 2011 - Bob Woodward
  • 2010 - Neil Gaiman
  • 2009 - Nicholas Sparks
  • 2008 - Eric Carle
  • 2007 - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (delivered by Mark Vonnegut)
  • 2006 - Patricia Cornwell
  • 2005 - Marc Brown
  • 2004 - John Irving
  • 2003 - Louis Sachar
  • 2002 - David McCullough
  • 2001 - Tomie dePaola
  • 2000 - Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • 1999 - Judy Blume
  • 1998 - Margaret Atwood
  • 1997 - Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith
  • 1996 - Amy Tan
  • 1995 - Gary Paulsen
  • 1994 - William Styron
  • 1993 - Chris Van Allsburg
  • 1992 - Gail Godwin
  • 1991 - Maurice Sendak
  • 1990 - John Updike
  • 1989 - David Macaulay
  • 1988 - Tom Wolfe
  • 1987 - Lloyd Alexander
  • 1986 - Kurt Vonnegut
  • 1985 - Jean Fritz
  • 1984 - James Baldwin
  • 1983 - Richard Peck
  • 1982 - Gail Sheehy
  • 1981 - Scott O'Dell
  • 1980 - Norman Mailer
  • 1979 - Elaine L. Konigsburg
  • 1978 - Saul Bellow
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