Book
Unwriting Maya Literature: Ts’íib as Recorded Knowledge
Co-authored with Paul M. Worley. University of Arizona Press, 2019.

Unwriting Maya Literature provides a decolonial framework for reading Maya texts, building on the work of Maya authors and intellectuals Gaspar Pedro González (Q’anjob’al) and Irma Otzoy (Kaqchikel). We privilege the Maya category ts’íib to reveal how Maya peoples themselves conceive of artistic creation, thereby offering a decolonial departure from theoretical approaches that remain situated within alphabetic Maya linguistic and literary creation.
Reviews
- Karger, Paula L. “Unwriting Maya Literature: Ts’ íib as Recorded Knowledge by M. Worley and Rita M. Palacios.” The Latin Americanist 66.3 (2022): 371-374
- Eternod, Sue Meneses. “Paul M. Worley y Rita M. Palacios. Unwriting Maya Literature: Ts’ íib as Recorded Knowledge” Diálogos de Campo 4.8 (2022): 131-136
- Pérez González, Jaime. “Des-escribir la literatura maya: Ts’ íib como conocimiento grabado por Paul M. Worley and Rita M. Palacios” in Native American and Indigenous Studies 8.2 (2021): 176-177.
- Pérez González, Jaime. “Stijk’untesel xnichimal maya ts’ iib: sk’ejomal snopojibal-sp’ijil maya te ts’ íibe by Paul M. Worley and Rita M. Palacios” in Native American and Indigenous Studies 8.2 (2021): 174-175.
- Pérez González, Jaime. “Unwriting Maya Literature: Ts’ íib as Recorded Knowledge by Paul M. Worley and Rita M. Palacios” in Native American and Indigenous Studies 8.2 (2021): 178-179.
- Campbell, Sarah A. “Worley, Paul M. and Palacios, Rita M. (2019) Unwriting Maya Literature: Ts’íib as Recorded Knowledge” in Bulletin of Latin American Research 40.1 (January 2021): 161-162.
- Brown, Julia. “UnReading: New Approaches to Recorded Indigenous Knowledges Across Abiayala” in Chasqui 49.1 (May 2020)
- Esch, Sophie. “Maya Textures: Conceptualizing Contemporary Indigenous Poetics, Patterns, and Performances” in Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura 35.2 (2020): 165-167
Podcasts
- “Episode 007: ‘Unwriting Maya Literature’ with Maya literature scholars Rita Palacios and Paul Worley,” interview with Catherine Nuckols-Wilde, Mesoamerican Studies Online. November 2019. https://mesoamericanstudiesonline.blog/podcast/mesoamerican-studies-on-air-season-1-ep-007/
- “Episode 008: ‘Des-escribir la literatura Maya’ con profesores de literatura Maya Rita Palacios y Paul Worley,” interview with Catherine Nuckols-Wilde, Mesoamerican Studies Online. November 2019. https://mesoamericanstudiesonline.blog/podcast/mesoamerican-studies-on-air-season-1-ep-008/
- “Historias 53: Rita Palacios and Paul Worley on Mayan Cultural Production,” interview with Steven Hyland, South Eastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS). June 13, 2019. https://secolas.org/media/historias-53-rita-palacios-and-paul-worley-on-mayan-cultural-production
Book chapters
“’We are the canon’: On Reconceptualizing Hispanic Studies from Indigenous Studies,” co-authored with Juan Castillo Cocom and Paul M. Worley. Abiayalan Pluriverses: Bridging Indigenous Studies and Hispanic Studies. Edited by Gloria Chacón, Juan Guillermo Sánchez, and Lauren Beck. Amherst College Press, 2024.
Palacios, Rita M., and Paul M. Worley. “La rebelión de la palabra: Waldemar Noh Tzec y el arte de la autotraducción.” T’áalk’u’Iknalítico: Omniausencias, Omnipresencias y Ubicuidades Mayas. Edited by Juan A. Castillo Cocom. Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quitana Roo, 2024.
“Recentering the World: Reading Maya Literatures through Xocom Balumil.” Co-authored with Paul M. Worley. Central American Literature as World Literature. Edited by Sophie Esch. Bloomsbury, 2023. 19-38.
“Maya Literature” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. November 2022. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.1295
“Maya Poetry from Guatemala: Moving Beyond the Written Word.” Approaches to Teaching Central American Literature. Edited by Gloria Chacón and Mónica Albizúrez. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2022. 148-160.
“(Re)Technologizing the Word: Recording, Knowledge, and the Decolonial Aesthetics of Maya Ts’íib”

Co-authored with Paul M. Worley.
In Indigenous Interfaces: Spaces, Technology, and Social Networks in Mexico and Central America, edited by Jennifer Gómez Menjívar and Gloria E. Chacón. University of Arizona Press, 2019. 33-55.
“Scars That Run Deep: Performing Violence in the Work of Regina José Galindo and Rosa Chávez.”

In Human and Environmental Justice in Guatemala, edited by Stephen Henighan and Candace Johnson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. 137-172.
“Actos peatonales, actos de consumo: La queerificación del espacio en La estrategia de Chochueca de Rita Indiana Hernández”

In Rita Indiana: Archivos, edited by Fernanda Bustamante Escalona. Santo Domingo: Ediciones Cielo Naranja, 2017. 57-78. (invited reprint)
“De animales y significados: discursividades en la obra de Augusto Monterroso”
In La mosca en el canon. Ensayos sobre Augusto Monterroso, edited by Alejandro Lambarry. Mexico D.F.: Fondo Editorial Tierra Adentro, 2013. 109-127.
Articles
Coming soon.
If you would like a copy of one of my papers and don’t have access, drop me a line, I’d be happy to send it along.