Damiana’s Reprieve

Damiana is the lead in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and leading up to the opening day’s performance a sequence of unexpected events – from a surprise family reunion that forces her to analyze her past, to facing the consequences of the domestic abuse she and her siblings endured, on through finding the answer to a very painful question – culminate to leave her world forever altered.

Martha Bátiz was born and raised in Mexico City, but has been living in Toronto since 2003. Her articles, chronicles, reviews and short stories have appeared in newspapers and magazines in her homeland as well as in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Peru, Ireland, England, the United States and Canada. She holds a PhD in Latin American Literature, is an instructor of Creative Writing at the University of Toronto, and is a part-time professor at York University/Glendon College, where she teaches Spanish and Literary Translation. She lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Her previous book of short fiction, Plaza Requiem, (with Exile Editions) won the Latino Book Award for Best Popular Fiction in 2018.