Andrea Ciria
Andrea Ciria was born in Mexico City. She is a writer, a proofreader, and a translator. She has published books such as The end of the worst day, 2019, Impossible Assumptions, 2018 and 2022, and The Veiled Smile, 2015 and 2022. She studied a master's degree in Literature at El Colegio de Morelos, a major in Communication Sciences and minor in Music at the University of the Americas-Puebla, and a diploma in Literary Creation at the Ricardo Garibay School of Writers. She is currently studying the diploma "The limits of the possible, a panorama of fantastic literature", at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
A little bit of her literary trajectory
She was invited to participate in the XVII National Colloquium "Efraín Huerta" on Language and Literature, 2022, in the city of Guanajuato, with the keynote lecture "The Essentials in Fantastic Literature." She also participated in the International Book Fair of Cochabamba, 2022, in the First International Meeting of Horror Narratives, the first Encounter of Strange Literature and Imagination "Ships and Monsters," 2020, at the VIII Independent Book Fair, 2020, the "Encounter of Storytellers" at the Garibay School of Writers, 2020, the 41st International Book Fair at the Palacio de Minería, 2020, the Morelos Book Fair 2020, the International Book Fair of Cuernavaca, 2019, the International Book Fair of Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, 2018, and the Chrononaut Congress, BUAP/Secretariat of Culture and Tourism of Puebla, 2018.
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In 2020, her short story "The Twirl in the Loop" was selected to be published in the Third Short Story Anthology of the Third National Mexican Writers' Short Story Contest. In 2019, she won first place in the XXII National Short Story Contest "Mujeres en Vida," a tribute to María Luisa Bombal, with her story "The Other Law," and received an honorable mention for her anthology of fantastic stories, Bad Blood, in the Call for Unpublished Work from the Editorial Fund of the State of Morelos. In 2017, she secured first place in the First Call for Publication of Unpublished Works by Lengua de Diablo Editorial with the compilation of fantastic stories, Impossible Assumptions. In 2015, she received an honorable mention for the story “Her Only Eye" in the First National Award of Fantastic Stories "Amparo Dávila," which was published in 2016.
Andrea’s latest literary activities
Andrea has been invited to participate as the keynote speaker in the XVII National Colloquium "Efraín Huerta: Language and Literature”, 2022, in the city of Guanajuato, the Cochabamba International Book Fair, 2022, at the First International Meeting of Horror Narratives, the First Meeting of Strange Literature and Imagination "Ships and Monsters", 2020, at the VIII Independent Book Fair, 2020, the "Meeting of Storytellers" of the Garibay School of Writers, 2020, the 41st International Book Fair of the Palacio de Minería, 2020, the Morelos Book Fair 2020, the Cuernavaca International Book Fair, 2019, the Guanajuato International Book Fair, San Miguel de Allende, 2018, and in the Literature Congress, of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Puebla, 2018.
Her books
Fantastic Literature, Andrea´s weakness
Since I was very young (I couldn't write or read yet, but I could speak), I have been fascinated by telling strange stories. My parents must remember well the moments when, with a pair of socks on my hands (which in my immature mind resembled puppets), I would chase them everywhere, telling them stories filled with unusual and impossible situations, in which I would wonder, "What if...?" Paradoxically, the freedom to create and discover other possibilities or alternate paths to reality confined me to the twisted mazes and the unbeatable beauty of the fantastic.
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Intrigue and ambiguity are the narrative techniques that I enjoy reading and writing the most. Intrigue, which means to entangle, consists of the clues (the things written between lines) that keep our interest in a story, because as readers (or writers), we don't really know what will happen. On the other hand, ambiguity allows writers to create multiple ways of interpreting events through language. It is a potent tool in the realm of fantastic literature, thriving on the intersection of reality and the impossible.
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Fantastic literature encompasses a fascinating range of theoretical and empirical definitions. I view literature as a fluid entity, where its channels cannot be confined by mere limitations. However, the precise definitions provided by theorists like Roger Caillois, David Roas, Tzvetan Todorov, and Flora Botton place us in diverse vessels sailing through the same currents of the fantastic.
During this voyage, it is crucial to recognize that the essence of a fantastic story lies not in its subject matter, but in its execution. In other words, the existence of the fantastic mode hinges upon three fundamental elements: 1) reality (mimesis), which represents a cultural consensus; 2) the
impossible (non-mimetic); and 3) ambiguity, the capacity to convey the impossible using language. To be truly fantastic, a story must be rooted in a realistic backdrop, enabling the emergence of the implausible and fostering ambiguous interpretations that the writer deliberately refrains from explaining.
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I believe it is crucial to clarify that while fantasy (the marvelous), science fiction, magical realism, and surrealism are closely related to fantastic literature, we should not mistake them for its direct siblings. It is not the same to immerse oneself in a realm where conversing with talking cats is commonplace, or in another world where time travel is made possible through scientific means, as it is to enter a reality where, inexplicably, the individuals strolling down the cereal aisle of a supermarket suddenly lose their ability to speak without any explanation.
