Spanish writer Gabi Martínez joins us to present The Last House Before the Sea, his magnificent account of a year spent living on Buda, a small island in Spain’s Ebro Delta. Mixing field observation, storytelling, and reflection, Martínez captures the rhythms of a community living on the edge of land and sea, where rice fields, seabirds, and eel fishers coexist with the rising tides and uncertainty of a changing climate.

Named Best Book of 2023 by WMagazine and already in development for a film adaptation, The Last House Before the Sea has earned Martínez praise as the “Delta Force of nature literature” (El País). His writing stands at the intersection of ecology, travel, and literature, exploring how humans inhabit and are shaped by their environments.

Martínez will be joined by Katie Fisher, visual artist and scholar whose work focuses on environmental humanities and the deep connections between humans and the more-than-human world. Together, they will discuss the making of the book, the disappearing landscapes that inspired it, and how storytelling can help us imagine new ways of living with the planet.

About the author:

Gabi Martínez is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including Sólo Para Gigantes (published in the U.S. as In the Land of Giants). His books have been translated into ten languages and recognized internationally for their innovative approach to nature and storytelling. The Last House Before the Sea was chosen as the best book of 2023 by the literary magazine WMagazine; a film adaptation is already in progress. El País has called him the “Delta Force of nature literature.” He is the director of the LiterNatura Festival (which received a UNESCO award, the Serondaya award, and the award granted by Biosphere Reserves to the best project in the Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage), a founding member of the Caravana Negra and Lagarta Fernández associations and of the Urban and Territorial Ecology Foundation; and the co-director of the Invisible Animals project. He lives in Barcelona, where he was born.

Katie Fisher is an interdisciplinary visual artist and educator with a doctorate in Visual and Performing Arts focused on environmental humanities. Her work investigates urgent topics like environmental justice and the deep, complex connections between humans and the more-than-human world. She uses creative data visualizations, counter-mappings, and site-specific installations to illustrate the slow, cumulative damage done to landscape assemblages. She is currently at work on a book that counter-maps undead wetlands and artificial sinkholes in the New Orleans region of the Mississippi Fluvial Delta.”

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