Encounters in Comala IV | Interview with Laura Baeza (25:36)
Bio Laura Baeza
Laura Baeza was born in June 1988 in Campeche, Mexico. Storyteller, poet, editor and also violinist, she graduated in Literature from the Autonomous University of Campeche and studied Narratology and Comparative Literature at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. In 2017, with her book of short stories Ensayo de orquesta, Laura Baeza won the Premio Nacional de Cuento Breve Julio Torri, convened by Tierra Adentro, and the Premio Nacional de Narrativa Gerardo Cornejo for her book of short stories Época de Cerezos. A year later, in 2018, she was selected by the Guadalajara International Fair within the program “Al ruedo: ocho talentos mexicanos” as one of the narrative proposals for the future. In addition, she is a contributor to numerous magazines among which are: Tierra Adentro, Letralia and El coloquio de los perros.
On this occasion, however, we talked with Laura Baeza about her first and formidable novel, Niebla ardiente, published in 2021 by Alfaguara. A work that, against the backdrop of the femicides that plague Mexico, talks about grief, love and guilt. All this through the story of its protagonist, Esther, a Mexican woman who, having emigrated to Barcelona, cannot stop traveling to a past that connects her to her childhood and, above all, to her sister’s mental illness and her disappearance.