About this Event
230 S Bouquet St, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SPAN 1451: DISRUPTIVE BODIES’ SPEAKER SERIES “ILLNESS, DISABILITY AND WRITING IN THE HISPANOSPHERE” PRESENTS:“WORDS LIKE HEARTBEATS: WRITING THE FAILING HEART”
“Words like heartbeats” will explore the challenge of
communicating the experience of illness. Margarita Saona
was diagnosed with heart failure in 2015. From that
moment on, her writing revolved around the fact that the
literary tropes of the broken heart were insufficient,
even fallacious, vis à vis the catastrophic event that
impacted her life. Almost a decade and three books
later, the author will discuss how the alienation of
illness connected for her with the creative process.
Blogging, poetry, memoir, and essay were all forms she
practiced in an attempt to give form to lived
experience. She will reflect on how the phenomenology of
illness sometimes creates space for literary expression.
Please let us know if you require an accommodation in order to participate in this event. Accommodations may include live captioning, ASL interpreters, and/or captioned media and accessible documents from recorded events. At least 5 days in advance is recommended.