Abstract:
In this lecture, Carlos Andrés Gómez reflects on the evolution of his literary work and its sustained engagement with the theme of masculinity in contemporary society. Drawing on selected novels, essays, and short fiction, he explores how his characters grapple with vulnerability, expectation, intimacy, and power, challenging inherited models of manhood while probing the emotional costs of silence and pride. Gómez considers masculinity not as a fixed identity but as a shifting cultural script shaped by family, history, migration, and media. He examines how young men navigate friendship, ambition, and failure in rapidly changing social landscapes, and how literature can open space for more expansive, humane forms of self-understanding. Addressing university students and faculty in Macau, he reflects on the city’s unique blend of traditions and global influences, inviting dialogue about gender, responsibility, and belonging. The talk proposes storytelling as a vital tool for reimagining masculinity with honesty, courage, and care.

Biography:

Carlos Andrés Gómez is a poet and performer and the author of a prize-winning memoir, Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood (Random House Penguin, 2013), poetry collections Fractures (Felix Polak Prize) and Hijito (Broken River Prize). Gómez graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in History and earned his MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Gómez has won more than 100 prizes, honours, and awards as an author, poet, actor, playwright, and filmmaker, including winning the 2024 Yeats International Poetry Prize, 2019 Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry etc.