The objective of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias´ (IAC’s) multicultural project “En un lugar del Universo…” is to make a contribution to the harmonization between the sciences and the humanities. This initiative was motivated by the IV centenary, in 2016, of the death of Cervantes. In the context of this project the writer and film scriptwriter Nicolás Melini will visit next week the IAC and the Canary Island Observatories, as well as the Museum of Science and the Cosmos of Museums of Tenerife. This author, from La Palma, will be one of a group of Spanish speaking literary figures who are taking a look at astronomy, and whose stories will be collected in a volume whose aim is solidarity with Alzheimer’s disease.

On Monday 24th July, Melini will visit the IAC Headquarters and the Teide Observatory (Izaña, Tenerife). The following day he will visit the Museum of Science and the Cosmos, of Museums of Tenerife. On Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th he will get to know the installations, projects, and results of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma) as well as participating in a workshop on night-time astronomical observations and visiting the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) the biggest optical-infrared telescope in the world.

As well as organization by the IAC, “En un lugar del Universo…” has collaboration from the international scientific institutions at the Canary Island Observatories, as well as from the Museum of Science and the Cosmos, of Museums of Tenerife and the Cervantes Institute, with funding from the Severo Ochoa programme.

Nicolás Melini was born in Santa Cruz de La Palma and has written novels including Africans in Madrid (2017), Blood, Light, and the Cello (2005), and The Footballer Assassin (2000), as well as books of short stories such as “The Drive of a Friend”  (2010) and books of poems such as “Where was he marching to” (2004).

For his work he has been described by the critics as “one of the most muletifaceted and interesing autor son our creative scene” (Pedro Flores, El Mundo) “one of the most restless and mould-breaking narrators born thisside of the Atlantic in recent times (Eduardo García Rojas, Diario de Avisos) and “one of the most interesting authors on the island literary scene” (León Barreto, La Opinión).

Nicolas Melini writes articles on literatura, politics and cinema for a number of media, such as El Pais and eldiario.es. He has also directed short films, both fiction and documentaries, closely related to his literary work, such as Son (2005) and Looking is a Sin (2001) for which he received several prises in the Cinema Festival of Alcalá de Henares and the Festival of Short Films of the C.E.C.C. in Barcelona, as well as being the youngest author included by French hispanists in the French book The Spanish narrative today (2000-2010).

Contact for interviews:

• Elena Mora: +34922605206 and emora [at] iac.es (emora[at]iac[dot]es)

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