Megan McDowell with Spencer Ruchti — 'The Week of Colors' by Elena Garro

Third Place Books welcomes National Book Award-winning translator Megan McDowell for the release of her translation of Elena Garro's story collection, The Week of Colors. Third Place Books author events manager Spencer Ruchti joins in conversation.

Please note: Jazmina Barrera, previously scheduled as a featured author for this event, is no longer able to attend due to a scheduling conflict. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Elena Garro (1916–1998) was a novelist, playwright, short story writer, journalist, and the inventor of magical realism, though she rejected the term as “a cheap marketing label.” The author of over 40 books, she wrote about the violence embedded in everyday life, with a focus on children, women, and indigenous people. In conjunction with the publication of The Week of Colors, Two Lines Press will publish The Queen of Swords by Jazmina Barrera (tr. Christina MacSweeney), a genre-defying biography and collection of essays on Elena Garro. The Queen of Swords is longlisted for the National Book Award and the Cercador Prize for Literature in Translation.

This event is free and open to the public. For important updates, RSVP is highly recommended in advance. This event will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. Sustain our author series by purchasing a copy of the featured book!

Tickets:

This event is free to attend. Registration is recommended in advance.

Please note: While RSVP helps us anticipate attendance, your RSVP may not guarantee a seat. Seating is first-come, first-served, and all events at our Ravenna neighborhood store are free and open to the public. Only standing room may be available for events with high interest.

We are happy to accommodate any accessibility concerns. Please contact us at events@thirdplacebooks.com or call our Ravenna store at 206-525-2347.

About The Week of Colors . . .

Short stories from the “cursed mother of magical realism” (El Mundo), now in English for the first time

A woman flits between two realities centuries apart, as scenes from the violent conquest of Mexico bleed their way into her comfortable contemporary life. Two little girls visit the home of a sorcerer who tortures women named after the days of the week. Girls become dogs, a laborer hides human bones in bricks he’ll use to build a new development, and an old woman appears at an acquaintance’s door one night with a knife and a bone-chilling confession.

With The Week of Colors, Elena Garro laid the groundwork for the literary movements that would shape the landscape of Latin American fiction and beyond. Here you’ll find the early roots of magical realism, feminist horror, and anticolonial speculative fiction. In The Week of Colors, Garro highlights the violence in our history, our homes, and our hearts, in vivid color.

Megan McDowell has translated many of the most important Latin American writers working today. Her translations have won numerous prizes, including the National Book Award, and have been nominated for the International Booker Prize four times. She is from Richmond, Kentucky, and lives in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo credit: Maria Ródenas Sáinz de Baranda)

Spencer Ruchti is the author events manager for Third Place Books and co-founder of the Cercador Prize for Literature in Translation. (Photo credit: Drew Ruchti)

About Third Place Books

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events.