Presenting Humanities in the Village, an event series in partnership with the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute at Johns Hopkins University, which aims to make scholarship publicly accessible.
For their October edition, Humanities in the Village is thrilled to welcome Gisela Heffes in celebration of her new novel Crocodiles at Night, out this year from Deep Vellum Press. Lysley Tenorio will join Heffes in conversation about this philosophical, heartfelt story exploring familial ties, memories and images of places that are no longer the same, the vagaries of the medical system, and social critique. It presents an unfeigned, excruciating view of death and how it affects all who experience it.
Although the outcome of Crocodiles at Night does not remain a surprise beyond the first paragraph, it expands outwards in philosophical, heartfelt reverberations true to Heffes's style. Crocodiles at Night explores familial ties, memories and images of places that are no longer the same, the vagaries of the medical system, and social critique in this unfeigned, excruciating view of death and how it affects all who experience it.
Gisela Heffes is a Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture at Johns Hopkins University as well as a writer, ecocritic, and public intellectual with a particular focus on literature, media, and the environment in Latin America. She is the author of several novels, including Ischia (Deep Vellum, 2023). She currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland.