After world Languages Department Chair and Spanish teacher Dr. Silvia Kurlat Ares heads home from a long school day, she works late into the night researching, writing and revising academic books and articles. This past August, Kurlat Ares published her second solo book titled “La Ilusión Persistente: Diálogos Entre la Ciencia-Ficción y el Campo Cultural.”

Kurlat Ares’ book is an academic study of science fiction in contemporary Argentine culture. After researching this topic in past years for a postdoctoral project at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Kurlat Ares decided to develop her work into a book.

According to Kurlat Ares, one of the reasons the publication process took so long is because there was a lot of material. The research took five years and the writing took about four years.

Kurlat Ares said she had to read a lot of primary and secondary sources and attend seminars and discussions in order to write this book. There is very little work already done about her topic so it was hard for Kurlat Ares to decide what exactly she wanted to write about.

“It was a process of eliminating all of the things that I did not have time to write. I can write about three more books with what I have,” Kurlat Ares said.

Another reason why it took longer to publish her book is because, according to Kurlat Ares, balancing teaching and writing is very difficult. She tries to have everything she needs for teaching done by the end of the day so that when she comes home she can just focus on writing. She is currently working on a third book and co-editing two books.

“You know how other people have other hobbies, [writing] is mine,” Kurlat Ares said.