Julián Delgado Lopera
Photo by Devlin Shand Photography
Bio
Julián Delgado Lopera is the author of the New York Times-acclaimed novel Fiebre Tropical (Feminist Press, 2020), winner of the 2021 Ferro Grumley Award and a 2021 Lambda Literary award, and a finalist of the 2020 Kirkus Prize in Fiction and the 2021 Aspen Literary Prize. Delgado Lopera has received fellowships and residencies from Black Mountain Institute, Hedgebrook, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, Headlands Center for The Arts, Brush Creek Foundation of the Arts, Lambda Literary Foundation, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Their work has appeared in Granta, Teen Vogue, the Kenyon Review, McSweeney's, the White Review, to name a few. They are the former executive director of RADAR Productions and one of the founders of Drag Queen Story Hour. Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Delgado Lopera currently resides in San Francisco.
After receiving the news, I thought back to recently immigrated 15-year-old goth me on Saturdays during a family gathering in a corner writing down all the shade my tías were throwing in a mix of English and Spanish. I went back to the ways in which my own language tapestry has been weaved, which is to say I went back to hair salons in Miami, cuenteros on the streets of Bogotá, underground drag shows, the way my grandmother mispronounced every single English word. I went back to how impossible it felt to write in a language that was not mine but into which I had been thrown and now called me from all corners.
My creative process is inspired by discarded language: hearsay, gossip, slang, Spanglish. My work centers marginal consciousness and marginal language as the default of human experience. It highlights characters embodying the experiences of being trans, female, immigrant, misfits, monolingual Spanish speakers, coming of age in a place that does not recognize them, and growing up in families that seem unaware—or live in denial—of their systems of abuse. Their concerns include religion, female bodies, queerness, up-rootedness, matriarchal dysfunction, boredom, their limited options, and rebellion. The stories are all written in Spanglish (mix of English and Spanish).
I’m very honored and grateful to be part of the National Endowment for the Arts legacy. This NEA Literature Fellowship is an affirmation that my writing matters, a recognition not only for myself but for the writers of color that have paved the way for me to be here, writing the way I do. A testament of the importance of writing that challenges linguistic purity, refuses rigid borders, and embraces hybridity. A testament that being raised a punta de telenovelas and salsa by your abuela in a small apartment down in Bogotá can indeed make you a great writer. With this generous support from the NEA, I will be able to dial back on other kind of work and fully focus on finishing this next manuscript. This affirming gift makes space for me to eat, breathe, write. Gracias.