Author Mayra Santos-Febres will share readings and perspectives on her new book, "Quererse Negra," dedicated to thinking the construction of Afro Women in the Americas and their economies of interiority.

Mayra Santos-Febres was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, 1966. She has published the poetry collections Anamú y manigua (1990), El orden escapado (1991), Boat People (1994, 2021), Tercer Mundo (2004), Lecciones de renuncia (2021), and Huracanada (2018). Her short stories include Pez de vidrio y otros cuentos, El cuerpo correcto, Un pasado posible y Mujeres violentas. She has also published the novels Sirena Selena vestida de pena (2001), Cualquier miércoles soy tuya (2002), Fe en disfraz (2009), Nuestra Señora de la noche (2006) y La amante de Gardel (2015), the essay Tratado de Medicina Natural para Hombres Melancólicos (2011) y Sobre piel y papel (2004), and the non-fiction novel Antes que llegue la luz (2021). In 2019 she won the Prix Nationale de Littérature de l’Académie de Pharmacie in Paris, for La amante de Gardel. Since 2020, she has been part of the Kellogg Foundation Solidarity Council for Racial Equity and received a grant with José Arturo Ballester Panelli (her husband) and visual artist Ballesta Nueve to develop a series of documentaries entitled "The AfroLatinx Healing Race Project." She wrote and conducted the educational series for WIPR/PBS "En la punta de la lengua” (1991-2001), “A viva voz” (2021), “Tu Espacio Literario” (2021),  and six documentaries entitled "Afrodescendencia en la piel y la conciencia" (2021). In August 2022, she concluded the documentary "Loiza, the Land that Heals."