Traveling the Caribbean, Colombia, and the U.S.: Patricia Engel

Abstract

Born to Colombian parents and raised in New Jersey, fiction writer and essayist Patricia Engel discusses how she developed an interest in writing and the arts when she was a youngster. Having lived and studied in New York City, Miami, and Paris, she also informs how her trips to Colombia at various stages of her life have been crucial in her formation as a writer. Her much praised and award-winning short fiction and novels represent the displacement of immigrants and their children in many global contexts, including Colombia, Cuba, France, and the United States. Her narratives not only capture the effects of a civil war and migration but they are also invested in understanding the intimacy in relationships that result from crossing cultural and national boundaries.