Literature: The Hispanic Reading Room at the Library of Congress Releases 50 Previously Unpublished Recordings From the PALABRA Archive

From LC’s Four Corners of the World Blog:

The Hispanic Reading Room is happy to announce the release of 50 previously unpublished recordings from the PALABRA Archive for online streaming. Every year, as is tradition, a brand new batch of material from this historic literary collection is made available for online listeners worldwide during National Hispanic Heritage Month, which spans from September 15 to October 15. With this new launch, 370 of the archive’s 818 recorded sessions are now accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

This year’s batch of recordings includes a wonderful array of literary figures from all over Latin America, the U.S., the Iberian Peninsula, and the Caribbean, including award-winning Mexican author Elena Poniatowska; esteemed Cuban-American author, poet, and anthropologist Ruth Behar; and renowned Portuguese author Dulce María Cardoso.

Also included in this new group of recordings is a rare interview by Scottish poet, scholar, and translator Alastair Reid with Jorge Luis Borges. One of four recordings that Borges did for the archive, the interview was recorded during his last visit to the Library in 1984, two years before his death. Offering a valuable addition to the history of Luso-Hispanic studies and the history of the Library, another recorded interview features preeminent historian Lewis Hanke discussing his roles as the first director of the Hispanic Foundation (now the Hispanic Reading Room) of the Library of Congress and the founding editor of the Handbook of Latin American Studies.

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The PALABRA Archive is a collection of original audio recordings of 20th- and 21st-century Luso-Hispanic poets and writers reading from their works. With recorded authors from all over Latin America, the Iberian Peninsula, the Caribbean, and other regions with Hispanic and Portuguese heritage populations, the archive has to date more than 800 recordings, a portion of which are available for online streaming.

Learn More, Read the Complete Blog Post

Direct to PALABRA Archive

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