Alicia Partnoy
Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages and Literatures - Spanish | Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES
Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
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Biography
Alicia Partnoy is an author, human rights activist, and a survivor. Her book The Little School. Tales of Disappearance and Survival, was used as evidence in the trials against the genocide perpetrators in Argentina.She is the author of the poetry collections Flowering Fires/Fuegos florales (recipient of the First Settlement House American Poetry Prize) and Little Low Flying/Volando bajito, translated by Gail Wronsky. Partnoy edited You Can't Drown the Fire: Latin American Women Writing in Exile, and co-edited Chicana/Latina Studies: the journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. Poems from her Revenge of the Apple/Venganza de la manzana were posted on the metro in New York, Dallas, and Washington D.C., and sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock. She translated Gail Wronsky’s poetry collection So Quick Bright Things/Tan pronto las cosas, and Kate Gale’s opera libretto Río de Sangre. Partnoy’s work has been twice a Pushcart Foundation Writer's Choice Selection (Tobias Wolff and Bobbie Ann Mason), and a London Times best-seller.
A former Vice-Chair of Amnesty International, and member of the Board of Directors of PEN-West, Alicia Partnoy is a founding member of Proyecto VOS-Voices of Survivors, an organization that brings survivors of state sponsored violence to lecture at U.S. universities.
Education (5)
The Catholic University of America: Ph.D., Postgraduate Studies 1997
With Distinction
The Catholic University of America: M.A., Spanish Language Literature 1991
The American University: Certificate in Translation, Spanish-English 1987
University of the District of Columbia: Course work toward a B.A., Spanish Language Literature 1983
Universidad Nacional del Sur: Course work toward a B.A., Spanish Language Literature 1976
Areas of Expertise (5)
Writing and Political Repression
Testimonio
Women Writers
Social Semiotics
Contemporary Latin American Literature
Links (6)
Languages (2)
- Spanish
- English
Media Appearances (9)
Interview for Poetry LA
Poetry.LA
Alicia Partnoy, a poet who survived Argentina's "dirty war" of the 1970s, was one of thousands of "disappeared" sent to detention camps by the military dictatorship. During three years of imprisonment, she was tortured and many of her friends were killed. Expelled from Argentina in 1979, she came to the U.S. as a political refugee. Her first book, The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival (Cleis Press, 1986) is her "tribute to a generation of Argentines lost in an attempt to bring social change and justice." Her poetry collections include "Flowering Fires" (2015), "Little Low Flying" (2005) and Revenge of the Apple" (1992). She edited the anthology "You Can't Drown the Fire: Latin American Women Writing in Exile" (1988). She currently teaches at Loyola Marymount Univ. in Los Angeles. - Video by www.Poetry.LA
Workshop Attendees Speak Out to End Isolation
Poets & Writers online
amie Asaye FitzGerald, director of Poets & Writers' California Office and Readings & Workshops (West) program, describes her visit to a writing workshop led by P&W-supported writer Alicia Partnoy for the organization Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC).
Telling The Untellable
The Story
Alicia Partnoy speaks to guest host Sean Cole about the Little School, the secret prison in Argentina where she was held in 1977.
Ingrid Betancourt: The Blue Line: A Novel
Los Angeles Public Library
Betancourt, the extraordinary Colombian French politician and activist, whose New York Times bestselling memoir chronicled her six and a half year captivity in the Colombian jungle by the FARC, offers a stunning debut novel about freedom and fate. Set against the backdrop of Argentina’s Dirty War and infused with magical realism, The Blue Line is a breathtaking love story and deeply felt portrait of a woman coming of age as her country falls deeper and deeper into chaos. Hear from Betancourt about this new work that draws on themes from her own remarkable life—political oppression, individual courage, hope, and faith—as ordinary people are caught up in the hurricanes of history.
"I carry my rage like a dead fish, limp and stinking!"
Deccan Herald
I am alive. I, Alicia Partnoy, am still alive," she repeats to herself every morning. Her face, however, does not display any signs of fear or bitterness. Partnoy is a woman who has managed to find closure despite her horrific experiences and she now spends her life helping other victims and their families achieve this state.
I Have Two Voices
Undergraduate Thesis 2008 Loyola Marymount University
Anti-torture documentary by Marlena Rosenthal featuring interviews with Antonio Leiva and Alicia Partnoy who were both kidnapped and tortured in Argentina during the military coup of the 1970's and 80's.
Turning Atrocity into Narrative-Author Learning Center
La escuelita
La escuelita, historias del terrorismo de estado en Bahía Blanca
Oscar Promo - Celebrate the Movies Around the World
Oscars
The creative team of Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions, pulled some of their favorite fan movie moments from the web for this very special compilation.
Articles (11)
A Collective Testimony by Argentine Genocide Survivors: The Prison Walls Cry and We Laugh
Bloomsbury Publishing“A Collective Testimony by Argentine Genocide Survivors: The Prison Walls Cry and We Laugh.” Loss and Hope: Global, Interreligious and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Peter Admirand ed. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014, pp. 9-17.
Concealing God: How Argentine Women Political Prisoners Constructed a Collective Identity
Biography“Concealing God: How Argentine Women Political Prisoners Constructed a Collective Identity.” Biography. 36:1.Winter 2013, pp. 211-41.
Cuando Vienen Matando: On Prepositional Shifts and the Struggle of Testimonial Subjects for Agency
Publications of the Modern Language Association of America"Cuando Vienen Matando: On Prepositional Shifts and the Struggle of Testimonial Subjects for Agency." PMLA. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. Vol. 121:5. October 2006, pp 1665-1669.
Textual Strategies to Resist Disappearance and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
Purdue University Press“Textual Strategies to Resist Disappearance and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo.” Representing Humanity in an Age of Terror. Sophia McClennen and Henry James Morello, eds. Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2010, pp. 221-231.
“Continuidad de las islas.” “Arte política”
Nueva Editorial Universitaria de la Universidad de San Luis“Continuidad de las islas.” “Arte política”. Huellas: Memorias de resistencia (Argentina 1974-1983). María del Carmen Sillato,ed. San Luis, Argentina: Nueva Editorial Universitaria de la Universidad de San Luis. 2008, pp. 137-143.
Rosa, I Disowned You
Five Leaves Publications“Rosa, I Disowned You.” If Salt Has Memory. Jewish Exiled Writers from Africa, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. Jennifer Langer, ed. UKF: Five Leaves Publications, 2008, pp 253-256.
La narrativa de las Madres de Plaza de Mayo: Estrategias textuales de resistencia a la desaparición
Ediciones Nuevo Espacio“La narrativa de las Madres de Plaza de Mayo: Estrategias textuales de resistencia a la desaparición.” Mujeres, literaturas, políticas y compromisos en el NuevoMilenio: diálogos transatlánticos. Guadalupe Cortina, ed. (2007) New Jersey: Ediciones Nuevo Espacio (pp. 23-34).
Poetry as a Strategy for Resistance in the Holocaust and the Southern Cone Genocides
Sussex Academic Press"Poetry as a Strategy for Resistance in the Holocaust and the Southern Cone Genocides." The Jewish Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. Fragments of Memory. Kristin Ruggiero, ed. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2005, pp. 234-246.
On Being Shorter: Our Testimonial Texts and the U.S. Academia
South End Press"On Being Shorter: Our Testimonial Texts and the U.S. Academia." Women Writing Resistance In Latin America and the Caribbean Islands. Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez, ed. South End Press, 2003, p.151-167.
Ser chaparrita: Los textos testimoniales como desafío al mundo académico y las lecciones de Elena Poniatowska
De Paul University“Ser chaparrita: Los textos testimoniales como desafío al mundo académico y las lecciones de Elena Poniatowska.” Diálogo. De Paul University. 17:1. Spring 2014, pp. 95-100.
Disclaimer Intraducible: My life/ is based/ on a Real Story
Biography: an Interdisciplinary Quarterly“Disclaimer Intraducible: My life/ is based/ on a Real Story.” Biography: an Interdisciplinary Quarterly. Vol. XXXII, Winter, 2009, pp.16-25.
