Monday, 6:00 pm EDT November 14, 2022
The Center for Fiction
Every day in the most dangerous states of Mexico, adolescent girls and young women are abducted from bus stops and schoolyards. Some become the slave-mistresses of drug lords and their armies of assassins. This is the horrific reality behind the acclaimed novel by American-Mexican writer Jennifer Clement, Prayers for the Stolen.
Jennifer Clement lives in Mexico City and was president of PEN Mexico during a time when Mexico became one of the most dangerous places in the world to practice journalism, and also a place where the news media routinely represses information.
In partnership with The Center for Fiction, Celebrate Mexico Now! invites you to be part of an intimate conversation about the novel with author Jennifer Clement moderated by Mexican journalist and writer Naief Yehya.
Prayers for the Stolen provides an illuminating portrait of women in rural Mexico, where drug lords are kings and daughters are in constant danger. An Irish Times Book of the Year, the novel was also a finalist for the PEN/ Faulkner Prize.
This event is presented by Mexico Now! in collaboration with The Center for Fiction. When you register for this event, you agree to share your information with both organizations.

Featuring
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Jennifer Clement
Jennifer Clement
Jennifer Clement (born 1960) is an American-Mexican author. She addresses the crucial issues of today through the lens of fiction. Her books sit on an “iceberg of research” that brings a breathtaking realism to her stories. Jennifer Clement is also known for her beautifully written biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s partner and muse, Suzanne Mallouk, in Widow Basquiat.
In 2015, Clement was elected president of PEN International, the first woman to be elected to this role since the organization was founded in 1921. As president, she created the “PEN International Women’s Manifesto.” Her manifesto has since transcended PEN and has been adopted by organizations around the world.
Photo Credit: Omar Meneses
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Naief Yehya
Naief Yehya
Naief Yehya (Mexico City, born 1963) is an industrial engineer, journalist, writer, pornographer, and cultural critic. He has lived in Brooklyn since 1992. He writes for several publications in Mexico, Spain, and Latin America, and has published four novels: Sanitary Works (Grijalbo, 1992), Going Home (Planeta, 1994), The Truth About Life on Mars (Planeta, 1995) and Ashes and Things (Random House, 2017); two short stories collections: Tales of Bad Women (Plaza & Janés, 2002) and Slices (Conaculta, 2012); and the essays: The Transformed Body.
Featured Book
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Prayers for the Stolen
By Jennifer Clement
Published by Hogarth
A haunting story of love and survival that introduces an unforgettable literary heroine.
Ladydi Garcia Martínez is fierce, funny and smart. She was born into a world where being a girl is a dangerous thing. In the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, women must fend for themselves, as their men have left to seek opportunities elsewhere. Here in the shadow of the drug war, bodies turn up on the outskirts of the village to be taken back to the earth by scorpions and snakes. School is held sporadically, when a volunteer can be coerced away from the big city for a semester. In Guerrero the drug lords are kings, and mothers disguise their daughters as sons, or when that fails they “make them ugly” – cropping their hair, blackening their teeth- anything to protect them from the rapacious grasp of the cartels. And when the black SUVs roll through town, Ladydi and her friends burrow into holes in their backyards like animals, tucked safely out of sight.
While her mother waits in vain for her husband’s return, Ladydi and her friends dream of a future that holds more promise than mere survival, finding humor, solidarity and fun in the face of so much tragedy. When Ladydi is offered work as a nanny for a wealthy family in Acapulco, she seizes the chance, and finds her first taste of love with a young caretaker there. But when a local murder tied to the cartel implicates a friend, Ladydi’s future takes a dark turn. Despite the odds against her, this spirited heroine’s resilience and resolve bring hope to otherwise heartbreaking conditions.
An illuminating and affecting portrait of women in rural Mexico, and a stunning exploration of the hidden consequences of an unjust war, Prayers for the Stolen is an unforgettable story of friendship, family, and determination.
About Celebrate Mexico Now!
Since 2004, Celebrate Mexico Now! has been the only independent arts festival spotlighting contemporary Mexico in New York City. Every year, we disrupt the often-narrow definitions of Mexican culture by exploring the way artists are reshaping, envisioning, and reflecting on their identity in the ever-changing global context.