Cristina Rivera Garza: De-Blading the Knife. Writing Femicide in Mud

Inspired by a walrus-ivory Story Knife from the Arctic region, Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza creates a multi-faceted narration that asks: what is remembered? How? For whom? The ephemeral strokes of a Story Knife were traditionally drawn by young Yup´ik girls into soil or snow to repeat old tales that would then fade away. Rivera Garza connects this empowering ancient Indigenous practice to the violentometro, a contemporary tool designed in Mexico to measure instances of intimate partner violence. The story of violence against women constantly disappears even as it is continuously told, re-told. Might a Story Knife play a role in reversing such erasure?

Cristina Rivera Garza was born in Matamoros, Mexico. She is a writer, translator, and literary critic. Her most recent publications include Liliana's Invincible Summer, which was awarded the 2024 Pulitzer Prize. She holds the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Chair and is the founder of the PhD Program in Creative Writing in the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Houston.