Allende illuminates U.Va. audience

She begins a new novel or writing project every Jan. 8, then lights a candle. It’s a ritual that has helped create such works as The House of the Spirits.

Stephanie Gross

This year, 10 days after her annual ceremony, novelist Isabel Allende (foreground) talked about her work to a standing-room-only crowd in Old Cabell Hall.

Spanish professor David T. Gies (background), who moderated the Friday evening event, said Allende’s appeal as a writer “mesmerizes” audiences. “She’s a very compelling author and she writes stories we can all identify with,” he said.

Allende was a visiting professor in U.Va.’s Spanish department in 1988. But her connection to this place began when her daughter, Paula, was a teaching assistant in the Spanish department in 1987 while she worked on a master’s in psychology. She succumbed to a rare hereditary disease in 1992.

Allende worked as a journalist in Latin America for several years following the 1973 assassination of her uncle, Chilean president Salvador Allende. Since then, she has written several best-selling novels, the most recent of which is Portrait in Sepia, published in 2000.

Her Jan. 18 lecture was sponsored by the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese department and several other Arts & Sciences programs, and was followed with a book signing.