The Departments of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras will host the lecture, “The Things We Didn’t Know: A Conversation with Puerto Rican Author Elba Iris Pérez.” Elba Iris Pérez will speak about her forthcoming novel, The Things We Didn’t Know (2024), which was awarded the inaugural prize of the “Books Like Us” literary contest by Simon & Schuster.

This event, moderated by Dr. Carmen Haydée Rivera (Department of English) and Dr. Elidio La Torre Lagares (Department of Comparative Literature) will take place on February 14, 2024, at 10:00am in Sala Jorge Enjuto of the Faculty of Humanities. The University of Puerto Rico is proud to be part of the global launch of this work, which will also have presentations in Texas and New Jersey.

Elba Iris Pérez, originally from Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, spent her childhood between 1950s Puerto Rico and Woronoco, a small industrial town in Massachusetts where several Puerto Rican families resided. Her novel provides a sincere and evocative portrait of a lesser-known aspect of life in the United States during the 1950s.

This event is free and open to the public. For additional information, please contact ch.rivera@upr.edu.