Argentine Academy of Letters names new corresponding members

The Argentine Academy of Letters (AAL) has welcomed new corresponding members, recognizing prominent figures in literature and theater. Among the appointees are Argentine writer, professor, and sociologist Carlos Virgilio Zurita, and Spanish playwright, professor, and theater director José Sanchis Sinisterra.

Zurita, based in Santiago del Estero, was honored with the 2024 Argentine Academy of Letters Literary Prize for poetry in 2024 for his work "A falta de otra cosa." He has a distinguished academic career, having served as dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the National University of Santiago del Estero (UNSE) and currently directs the Master's in Social Sciences there.

Sanchis Sinisterra, a resident of Madrid, is a prolific playwright with eighty theatrical texts to his name, many of which have been staged and published across Europe and America. His notable works include "¡Ay Carmela!" which was adapted into a film by Carlos Saura, and "La noche de Molly Bloom." He founded the Teatro Fronterizo in 1977 and its successor, Nuevo Teatro Fronterizo, in Madrid in 2011.

According to AAL President Rafael Felipe Oteriño, corresponding members are intellectuals with affinities for the Academy's work, including literary creation and linguistic or philological expertise, who reside outside the immediate reach of Buenos Aires. These members act as "informants," reporting on the diverse forms the Spanish language takes in their regions and collaborating with the Academy on local linguistic and cultural particularities.