There's always a reason to celebrate. Above all, if it is about doing it surrounded by affections: longtime friends, family, students, readers, admirers, curious and also (un)known.
"Celebrating Liliana" is the missing event at the Book Fair to honor the 80 years of life of Liliana Heker, more than six decades of which she dedicated to literature as an exceptional writer and essayist and also as a "teacher" or trainer of great contemporary writers.
The Alfonsina Storni room (White Pavilion) witnessed the emotional tribute that counted with the participation of the writer Enzo Maqueira, who offered as presenter, the cultural journalist Verónica Abdala and Julieta Obedman, editor of Heker's works, who reviewed his prolific career: his beginnings, his great works, the controversy with Julio Cortázar and his teaching vocation to "manufacture" writers who earned a place in the history of Argentine literature.
In addition, the recently declared Outstanding Personality of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires announced that she is writing her new novel although she did not reveal what is the theme or the genre she is developing but assured that she will not give more workshops after 40 years of having trained consecrated writers. Samanta Schweblin, Guillermo Martínez, Pablo Ramos, Silvia Schujer, and Romina Doval, among others, went through his writing workshop.
Enzo Maqueira, Verónica Abdala and Julieta Obedman at the tribute to Liliana Heker at the Book Fair. Photos Cleo Bouza / Verónica Bellomo for Fundación El Libro / Courtesy
Tribute to Lili
Abdala broke the ice with an emotional speech dedicated to the exceptional writer, who was also his mentor. "To his readers, and as well as to his students, he seems to have transmitted above all a conviction: that of the passion that gives meaning to his life," pondered the cultural journalist, who worked at Clarín, and author of Literary Café.
At 16, Heker sent a letter and a poem to the emblematic literary magazine El grillo de papel, founded and directed by Abelardo Castillo, who told her that the poem "was terrible" but recognized her as a writer and proposed her to be Editorial Secretary. There collaborated none other than Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, Augusto Roa Bastos, Juan Goytisolo and Ernesto Sabato, among other great writers.
Between 1961 and 1974 she worked as Editorial Secretary of El escarabajo de oro, a magazine she founded with Castillo. There published his first works authors such as Ricardo Piglia, Sylvia Iparraguirre, Humberto Costantini, Miguel Briante, Jorge Asís, Alejandra Pizarnik, Isidoro Blaisten, among others.
In 1966 he published Los que vio la zarza, his first book of short stories. Later followed Aquarius (1972), A Shining That Went Out in the World (1977) and Pears of Evil (1982), among others. In 1987 he published Zona de clivaje, his first novel, and later wrote El fin de la historia, in 1996. Shakespeare's Sisters, his first essay, was released in 1999.
Then followed the words of Julieta Obedman, editor of fiction books in charge of the edition of Alfaguara Argentina, of the Penguin Random House group, where Heker's books are published.
"My work as an editor is beautiful, I wouldn't trade it for anything, and Liliana's presence in my life goes far beyond work. It is someone advisable to frequent."
Obedman recalled that they met at Darling Tennis Club, where Heker plays. At that time, Alfaguara presented Antología de cuentos de tenis, a book by Guillermo Martínez with a prologue by Heker.
They worked together when Obedman was at Santillana Publishing. "The first thing we did was a volume of stories that had come out in large format and we passed it to pocket. I remember the first exchange was the lid."
"La trastienda de la escritura", by Liliana Heker (Alfaguara).
"In 2014-15 I joined Alfaguara and inherited Lili as an author. I had the privilege of working with someone like her with her work, with her writing, with her art, with her talent is a luxury, "emphasized the editor of Cuentos reunidos (2016), the book that collects Heker's stories – with a prologue by Schweblin – and La trastienda de la escritura (2019), among other works.
For his part, Maqueira said the best decision he made was to have gone through Heker's workshop. The writer surprised by pointing out that Liliana did not like him at first.
"I was always very Cortazarian. The first news I had about Liliana was because of the famous controversy with Cortázar. I remember seeing her in a documentary talking about the controversy of exiled writers. Obviously, I wanted to defend Julio, my friend, who I never met but was my friend: how do they mess with Julio."
"I remember when I told her that I knew her because of Cortázar and she automatically disarmed my bad little vibes with her smile and her kindness. I shut up, I didn't say anything and he explained Cortázar about it. Besides, they were friends," slipped the author of the Electronic novel.
And he closed: "What I learned in Liliana's workshops was not a method but a commitment to writing. The real creative act is in the rewriting and not necessarily in the writing. That necessarily changed everything: it was a before and after."
According to Maqueira, the stories La fiesta ajena, La noche del cometa and Don Juan de la casa blanca, belonging to the book Cuentos Reunidos, a compilation of Heker's stories published by Alfaguara in 2016, "are a great lesson in life and literature."
Young girl, Liliana Heker playing fight with Abelardo Castillo.
"I don't believe it"
Finally, the turn of the honoree, visibly moved after so many praises. Lili was grateful to be surrounded by affection: her husband Ernesto, her sister, her friend Nora of the "first superior" and the writers Guillermo Martínez, Inés Fernández Moreno and Alejandra Kamiya, of the "Heker school", present in the room to honor their literary teacher.
"The things that are happening to me lately I forgive myself because I am 80 years old. When you are that age, everyone forgives you for having argued with Cortázar. They forgive you everything," he said ironically, laughing.
"The word celebration impresses me a little bit. Do you know why I forgive everything? Because I'm writing," Heker revealed, and continued: "When I'm writing, all the infulas go away, I have the same insecurities: Will this be a novel? Will it be worth it? I feel in the same search that I felt with all the books and stories I wrote in my life."
He also celebrated the bond that is generated with the people who went to his writing workshops. "Today they are wonderful colleagues and friends. Seeing that creates a totally different link from all the other links. It's something very beautiful," emphasized the author of Cuentos reunidos.
Heker announced that he will no longer give his writing clinics. He also revealed that he had a hard time in the pandemic, that's why he dedicated himself to recovering his energy, although he clarified that he will always be close to his former students.
"At the last promotion I cried when I announced that I was not going to give them any more workshop. It was terrible. Ernesto (her husband) told me: you are leaving a herd of orphans," she said with a laugh.
New novel
Finally, he revealed the secret that very few knew. "They asked me: can we say you're writing a novel? Yes, you can say so. It's quite a new adventure for me at this stage of my life to be working on a novel. I worked in a very complicated stage."
"What I wrote during this rather chaotic time was confusing. I'm not so used to confusion, one always has a new experience. Life never runs out, this time I had to face confusion," said the prestigious writer, First National Prize for Literature, in Short Story and Short Story (2014 – 2017).
"I still understand that writing is an adventure that you know as much about right now as I do. What will result from that? We don't know, but it makes me feel wonderfully good to be writing."
PC
See also
