Home » Interviews » Ana Menéndez: Author, Educator

Ana Menéndez: Author, Educator

Introduction to Ana Menéndez. 1:22 min. Interview: Raymond Elman. Camera: Lee Skye. Post-Production: Paris Bender. Music: Joseph Elguera. Recorded 11/19/2023, Miami Book Fair.

ANA MENÉNDEZ (b.1970) has published five books of fiction: “The Apartment” (2023), “Adios, Happy Homeland!” (2011), “The Last War” (2009), “Loving Che” (2004) and “In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd” (2001), whose title story won a Pushcart Prize. She has worked as a journalist in the United States and abroad, lastly as a prize-winning columnist for the Miami Herald.

As a reporter, she wrote about Cuba, Haiti, Kashmir, Afghanistan, and India. Her work has appeared in Vogue, Bomb Magazine, The New York Times and Tin House and has been included in several anthologies, including The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. She has a BA in English from Florida International University and an MFA from New York University.

From 2008 to 2009, she lived in Cairo as a Fulbright Scholar in Egypt. She has also lived in India, Turkey, Slovakia and The Netherlands, where she designed a creative writing minor at Maastricht University in 2011. For the past 20 years, she has taught at various writing conferences and programs including, most recently, Bread Loaf and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She lives in Miami and is currently an associate professor at FIU with joint appointments in English and the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab.

https://anamenendezonline.com

The videos below are organized by Success Factor and run between 30 seconds and 6 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES: 1:10 min.

Where did you grow up and what was your first awareness of art of any discipline?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 0:28 sec.

How old was your uncle when he stopped writing poetry?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 3:27 min.

Tell us about the evolution of your talent for storytelling and writing.

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 3:42 min.

What was your motivation for writing “The Apartment”?

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED 1:48 min.

Your description of the suitcase in the book “The Apartment” reminded me of people holding suitcases when the Nazis herded them into the streets during the Holocaust. What did they pack in those suitcases?

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED: 5:18 min.

What was your approach to developing the stories and characters in “The Apartment”?

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 2:22 min.

Beverly Muzii: I loved the chapter in which you describe baby sea turtle hatchlings heading from the beach to the sea.

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 2:00 min.

Tell us about the arc of your career in journalism.

CRITICAL THINKING: 0:54 sec.

What was it like to be a Fulbright Scholar at The American University in Cairo?

EMPATHY: 0:58 sec.

What are your feelings about journalists who become addicted to putting themselves in harm’s way?

OVERCOMES CHALLENGES TO SUCCEED: 1:56 min.

When you were in Afghanistan, I assume you had to clothe yourself according to Islamic custom.

EMPATHY: 2:33 min.

Have you worn a burka and what is that experience like?

UNDERSTANDS ARTISTS’ NEEDS: 6:05 min.

As an author and university professor, what is your advice to your students?

SERENDIPITY: 1:13 min.

You bear a striking resemblance to comedian Sarah Silverman. I’m guessing you hear that all the time.