You’re invited to nerd out with us on Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account. Join us as we explore a unique narrative by a masterful storyteller in which a typically silenced character is given voice. The Moor’s Account is a historical fiction, and a reminder that history is told by the privileged and the powerful. Come with us on a deep dive into Lalami’s account discussing the role of race and BIPOC people in The Moor’s Account.
Date: September 28, 2023
Time: 7:00 PM EST
About the Speaker: Hyacinthe H. Miller
Hyacinthe is Chair of Crime Writers of Canada and belongs to professional organizations including the Alliance of Independent Authors, The Writers Union of Canada, Toronto Romance Writers, and Sisters in Crime.
Hyacinthe M. Miller is an award-winning author of short stories, magazine and newspaper articles, contemporary women's fiction and non-fiction. She's been published in Borealis magazine and in Herotica 7, Whispered Words, and Allucinor, The Elements of Romance anthologies.
Her debut novel, Kenora Reinvented, (Investigations, Mystery and Seasoned Romance) was published in 2019. Her current works-in-progress include The Fifth Man, book two of the Kenora & Jake series, a family memoir and a general interest text based on interviews with over seventy current and retired police officers around the world about challenges, rewards, and leadership in their chosen profession.
Hyacinthe is Chair of Crime Writers of Canada and belongs to professional organizations including the Alliance of Independent Authors, The Writers Union of Canada, Toronto Romance Writers, and Sisters in Crime. She is a founding member and Past President of the Writers Community of York Region, a qualified critique group leader, script advisor and writing mentor.
She blogs about writing at https://hyacinthemillerbooks.com.
Follow her on social media: Twitter - @sassyscribbler , Instagram - Between.the.Book.Sheets and her author page on Facebook.
Hyacinthe’s books are available via: amzn.to/3g7XmpZ and https://books2read.com/u/bw2rK0
About The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami
* words such as ‘slaves’ and ‘Indians’ are taken from the novel, and reflect accepted usage in the time and locations in which the story is set.
In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez left the port of San Lucar de Barrameda in Spain with a crew of more than five hundred men. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as wealthy and as famous as Hernán Cortés. But from the moment the Narváez expedition reached Florida it met with incredibly bad luck—storms, disease, starvation, hostile Indians. Within a year, there were only four survivors: the expedition’s treasurer, Cabeza de Vaca; a Spanish nobleman named Alonso del Castillo Maldonado; a young explorer by the name of Andrés Dorantes; and his Moroccan slave, Mustafa al-Zamori.
The four survivors were forced to live as slaves to the Indians for six years, before fleeing and establishing themselves as faith healers. Together, they traveled on foot through present-day Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, gathering thousands of disciples and followers along the way. In 1536, they crossed the Rio Grande into Mexican territory, where they stumbled on a group of Spanish slavers, who escorted them to the capital of the Spanish empire, México-Tenochtitlán.
Three of the survivors were asked to provide testimony of their journey—Castillo, Dorantes, and Cabeza de Vaca, who later wrote a book about this adventure, called La Relacíon, or The Account. But because he was a slave, Estebanico was not asked to testify. His experience was considered irrelevant, or superfluous, or unreliable, or unworthy, despite the fact that he had acted as a scout, an interpreter, and a translator. This novel is his story.
About the author: Laila Lalami
Laila Lalami was born and raised in Morocco. She attended Université Mohammed-V in Rabat, University College in London, and the University of Southern California, where she earned a PhD in linguistics. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, TheBoston Globe, The Nation, Time, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a British Council Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Lannan Foundation Residency Fellowship. She is currently an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside.
*This is a free event although we encourage you to order a copy of The Moor’s Account to read and support the author’s work.