FIU to honor Isabel Allende at BBC special event


Acclaimed Latin American author Isabel Allende will visit FIU Monday, March 5, to receive a literary award from the Creative Writing Program and participate in a public talk.

The event is open to the public and begins at 8 p.m. in the Wolfe University Center at the Biscayne Bay Campus. Following the presentation of the award, Allende and creative writing professor Debra Dean will have a chat on stage, à la James Lipton’s Inside the Actors Studio. Audience members will be invited to submit questions in writing for the author.

Tickets are free; however, seating is limited. RSVPs are required and can be made by contacting Marta Lee at leem@fiu.edu.

Allende will be the third recipient of the Lawrence Sanders Award, given by the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English. This award recognizes fiction writers whose work combines literary excellence with popular appeal. Past recipients are bestselling writers Scott Turow and Pat Conroy.

“The idea behind the award is to honor a writer who bridges the perceived gap between popular appeal and literary value,” said Dean. “Our argument is that the two are not mutually exclusive. That belief is one of the things that sets our MFA program apart.”

With 19 books that have sold more than 57 million copies in 35 languages, Allende epitomizes the spirit of the award. The Chilean author began her writing career as a journalist and has since collected an array of literary awards from around the world. She has addressed the question of popular appeal and literary merit, writing in the UK’s Observer, “The fact people think that when you sell a lot of books you are not a serious writer is a great insult to the readership.”

In her novels, Allende has created such unforgettable female characters as the incandescent Clara in The House of the Spirits, the survivor Eva Luna and the fearless Eliza in Daughter of Fortune. Her vivid and historically sweeping stories draw from Latin American history and often blur the line between reality and the fantasy.

“People often ask me how much truth there is in my books and how much I have invented,” Allende muses on her website. “I could swear that every word is true. If it has not happened, it certainly will. I can no longer trace a line between reality and fantasy. Before I was called a liar. Now that I make a living with these lies, I am called a writer. Maybe we should simply stick to poetic truth.”