The International Library and BAM Present Clarice Lispector from Page to Screen

One of twentieth-century-literature’s most singular and unsettling voices, Clarice Lispector’s writing continues to reverberate across language, cinema, and performance. Bringing together publishers, translators, filmmakers, and actors, this event will explore how her radically interior and philosophical prose has inspired new forms of artistic interpretation and why it remains so resonant today.

Filmmaker Luiz Fernando Carvalho and actress Maria Fernanda Cândido, one of the stars of the Oscar-nominated The Secret Agent, will reflect on the creative challenges of translating Lispector’s inner landscapes—her silences, obsessions, and moments of revelation—into visual and performative language. In particular, they’ll discuss their film, The Passion According to G.H., which opens on Friday, March 13, at BAM for a weeklong run.

New Directions publisher Barbara Epler and renowned translator and biographer Benjamin Moser will join them in considering how Lispector’s work resists categorization, hovering among philosophy, confession, and fiction, and how that resistance has shaped her reception across cultures and generations.

Moderated by critic and curator Carlos Valladares, the evening offers a rich reflection on what it means to read, translate, publish, and adapt a writer whose work continues to unsettle, illuminate, and reimagine the contours of inner life.

This event was curated in collaboration with Jesse Trussell (BAM) and Madeleine Molyneaux (Picture Palace Pictures).

This is a hybrid event. Cristina Rivera Garza and Rita Indiana will appear in person at The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, NY (7:00 pm ET). A live remote viewing will be held at the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco (4:00 pm PT). You can also livestream this event worldwide. Registration is required to attend in person in Brooklyn and for online access to the livestream. To attend the live remote viewing at the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco, please RSVP to events@catranslation.org.

This event is part of The International Library, a collaboration between The Center for Fiction and the Center for the Art of Translation. Join us for a series of conversations across time, place, language, and culture, with live audiences in San Francisco and Brooklyn, with more locations to come. This series will guide readers to think critically about how stories are told and explore the inspiration, philosophy, and craft of international storytellers.