Presentation of the book by its author, Gen GH (Genoveva Galarza Heredero).

In her theory of the carrying bag in fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin encourages us to tell stories as containers; The narrative becomes a bag full of elements, pieces without purpose or resolution, narratives that are not linear, stories that do not revolve solely around a conflict. Stories without a hero.

The book Mycorrhizae (2022, Mycorrhizae in English) is a carrying bag. This artistic and literary project comprises a collection of stories, poems and quotes that, like elements in a bag, lack linear connection. This book talks about mushrooms, yes, but not only about mushrooms. The author takes advantage of her relationship with mycology—transmitted through several generations—to talk about other things: love and mourning, technology and colonialism, ecology and exploitation of territory, linguistics and philosophy, identity, isolation, community.

Throughout its pages, the book builds the Fungal Archetypes, a speculative mythology composed of 31 illustrations of mushrooms, each one associated with an archetype that absorbs, is inspired and learns from the fascinating and unknown ecology of fungi. With this network of myths in her bag, the author invites us to think about other futures and other ways of living that are more similar to the examples that nature offers us.

During the presentation we will talk about mushrooms, but above all about the pieces contained in the Mycorrhiza transport bag. Using the Fungal Archetypes as a narrative instrument, the author will invite us to build our own stories. Our own bag.

Data sheet

Book website:https://myco.land

Language: English and Spanish

Publication date:September 2022.