Search results

Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez was named yesterday the winner of the 2017 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world’s highest literary honor. Ramírez has written more than 20 novels, including “Margarita, está linda la mar” (Margarita, How Beautiful the Sea), which won Spain’s prestigious Alfaguara award in 1998. His work has been widely translated.  He has also received Spain's Dashiel Hammet Award, France's Laure Bataillon Award, Cuba's José María Arguedas Latinamerican Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the José Donoso Prize in 2011. A Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of France, and a doctor honoris causa of Blaise Pascal University (France), he is also recipient of the International Award for Human Rights awarded by the Bruno Kreisky Foundation, and the Order of Merit of the Federal Government of Germany. An active journalist, Ramirez was deputy vice president of Nicaragua between 1984 and 1990 when he abandoned politics and became a full time writer.

Domingo de revolución

This is the story of Cleo, a Young poet and resident of La Habana, an author under suspicion. The Security of the State and the Ministry of Culture believe that her success has been constructed by “the enemy” like a destabilization arm, an invention of the CIA. For a certain group of exiled intellectuals, however, Cleo is, with their critical pretensions, a Cuban intelligence spy.   Trapped in this movement of thoughts, forbidden and ignored in Cuba, Cleo is the controversial but successful writer translated into multiple languages that shakes those who read her outside of the island. Her texts narrate the end of a large revolutionary process of almost 70 years. The Sunday of an intense week of revolution that has already met two centuries. Closed off in a beautiful mansion in El Vedado, under the brilliant light of a city trapped in time, Cleo has an emotional adventure with a Hollywood actor at the same time as she “discovers” her parents and resists in a country that blames her for her great sin: writing what she thinks. While Wendy Guerra was creating this fiction in La Habana, reality started to creep in, modifying the plot and intervening in it, contaminating, with its historical processes, the dramatic events that are narrated here in real time. With this novel, Guerra proves herself as one of the most sophisticated and clever Latin-American authors in the structure of her stories. A work marked by the sharp humor with which she hints at the Cuban tragedy, for the ease with which she describes, without judgement, a reality that she knows by heart, and for the sonorous language with which she invokes a besieged city with music, the sea, and every-day politics.  

Bolea, Juan

La obra narrativa de Juan Bolea arranca con El palacio de los jardines oblicuos (premio Ciudad de Alcalá de Novela Corta) y prosigue con dos novelas muy bien acogidas por la crítica: Mulata, ambientada en la Cuba de Castro, y El color del Índico, cuya trama transcurre en escenarios africanos. Ya con Ediciones B, publica El manager, una visión paródica del mundo del espectáculo y la política, y El gobernador, un ácido retrato de la autoridad y del conflicto generacional. Con Los hermanos de la costa, Bolea inició la exitosa serie de la subinspectora Martina de Santo, que prosiguió con La mariposa de obsidiana, Crímenes para una exposición, Un asesino irresistible, La melancolía de los hombres pajaros, El oro de los jíbaros y El síndrome de Jerusalén. En 2010 publica su novela Orquídeas negras y en 2011 gana el II Premio Abogados de Novela con la novela La melancolía de los hombres pájaro. Le siguió una novela publicada en 2012, que se titula Pálido monstruo, El oro de los jíbaros en 2013, y Parecido a un asesinato, un thriller publicado en enero de 2015. Los viejos seductores siempre mienten (2018) es su última novela. Foto: © Sergio Recio (Silver Moon Fotografía)

“The Divine Punishment” by Sergio Ramírez 25th Anniversary

This April, the author Sergio Ramírez celebrates the 25th anniversary of the publication of this grand novel "Castigo divino". One of the many activities programmed to celebrate the occasion is the inauguration of the author’s Web page complete with various works available to download; one being the 1st chapter of “The Divine Punishment” (in Spanish). There is also a contest underway in Facebook, as well as the publication of various interviews and in Nicaragua the airing of the television series based on the novel. The author has commented about this celebration: "During this month of April we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the publication of my novel "Castigo divino". Originally published by Mondadori in Spain, that same year it appeared in México published by Grijalbo, Editorial Sudamerica in Argentina, Oveja Negra in Colombia, Casa de las Américas in Cuba and Editorial Nueva Nicaragua in Nicaragua. It has been translated into German, French, Dutch, Russian, Bulgarian, Portuguese and recently into English. Alfaguara still has in print, trade and paperback editions, making this a book that has gone from generation to generation throughout the years." "Undoubtedly it has become a classic not to be missed." Antonia Kerrigan.

Negra

Nirvana del Risco is the first black Cuban heroine that shows herself naked, open and brutal faced with that which, because of prejudice, many hide: bisexuality, racism, politics, fear and close intimacy with the enemy. A daughter of the 60s generation and a rebellious Havanan protagonist in the 2000s, she takes the path between the prohibited and the sacred, revealing occult recipes established in an Afro-Cuban culture (Regla de Ocha). Rituals that go from the dynastic Cuban witchcraft, that which few openly accept and which are used in daily rituals and incantations, to the complex balancing act between race, sex, politics, and religion. Nirvana leaves the oracle convinced that the Afro-Cuban cult is retaining the legend of her life, but decides to free herself and to change the rules, to disobey the words that the Orishas dictate, retiring from her life all the antidotes to the terrible plans that have accompanied her since birth. Endemic seasonings, native and sensual accents, bittersweet and tropical flavors reveal a hidden part of the mixed Cuban nationality. This creole and enlightened model is presented with an epic, unique, and dark journey that she takes fearlessly, a passionate route between Cuba and France, where she plans to settle, knocking down clichés and breaking stigmas about what it means in the world today to be a beautiful Cuban woman and black like the night. The tragic fate of the heroine narrates a profound and little-explored part of female Latin-American literature.  With a magical and contemporary language, the author invites us on a singular trip bathed in sublime black tears. The word “Negra” (black woman) is for some a taboo term; for the protagonist of this splendid novel it contains all the music, the flavor, and the feeling of her body, her soul, and her nation.

Chávez Castañeda, Ricardo

Ricardo Chávez es maestro en creación literaria por la New Mexico State University y licenciado en Psicología. Ha publicado literatura infantil y juvenil: Los ensebados (1993, Premio Nacional de Novela Juvenil FILIJ), El secreto de Gorco (1994, Premio Nacional de Cuento Infantil FILIJ), Miedo, el mundo de al lado (1994, Premio Nacional de Novela Juvenil FILIJ), Las montañas azules (1998), La valla (Everest, 2000), La niña que tenía el mar adentro (2001); Fernanda y los niños secretos (Premio Nacional de Literatura Infantil «Juan de la Cabada», 2000), Mañanario (Everest, 2006), Salvavidas ( SM, 2006) y Las peregrinas del fuisoyseré (FCE, 2007). Entre sus obras para adultos, en narrativa, se incluyen: El día del hurón (México, 1997), Estación de la vergüenza (México, 1999), Y sobrevivir con las manos abiertas. Una historia de todos los fines del mundo (México, 2001), El final de las nubes (RBA, 2001), La Conspiración Idiota (México, 2003), El fin de la pornografía (México, 2005), El libro del silencio (Alfaguara, 2007) y Georgia (FCE, 2011). Cuentos suyos han formado parte de antologías de narradores mexicano y/o latinoamericanos publicadas en Cuba, México, Chile, España y Estados Unidos. Además de varios premios en México, Ricardo Chávez Castañeda ha obtenido reconocimientos internacionales como: el Premio Borges de cuento (Argentina, 1987), el Premio Latinoamericano de Cuento (México, 1994) y el Premio Aresti de cuento (Bilbao, España, 2002). Ha sido finalista en el Premio Internacional de Novela Planeta-Joaquín Mortiz (México, 1994) y por dos ocasiones (1998 y 2002) en el Premio Internacional de Novela Negra Dashiel Hammet (Gijón, España). También, obtuvo una mención honorífica en el Concurso Casa de las Américas, novela, en 1999.

Clara Obligado presented with the IX Setenil Award

“The Book of the Mistaken Travels” by Clara Obligado, is presented with the IX Setenil Award for the best book of short stories published inSpain in 2012, assembled by the City ofMolina de Segura. Yesterday, the 30th. of October, 2012 the IX Setenil Award for the Best Book of Short Stories Published in Spain was celebrated. This award has been converted into a national reference for the short story genre. The jury was chaired, in this occasion, by the author Cristina Fernández Cubas, and accompanied by Anontio Lucas, poet and redactor of Culture for the newspaper El Mundo, and José María Pozuelo Yvancos, professor at the University of Murcia, columnist for the La Vanguardia newspaper and critic for the newspaper ABC. The presentation of the Award will be assisted by the winner and the jury members on the 11th of December en Molina de Segura. Source: Editorial Páginas de Espuma More information: Editorial Páginas de Espuma Vídeo de Clara Obligado realizado por Casa América

Nunca fui primera dama

Revised, corrected and augmented by its author. Includes a new chapter: "Without Fidel" “The kidnapper has died; the cage has been left open and I do not feel the impulse of coming out but rather the panic that the unknown will come through the door. How are we supposed to live now, without someone who tells us what we are meant to do.” The previous lines summarize the paradoxical state of today’s Cuba, both liberated and orphaned at the same time after the death of Fidel Castro. Several generation of Cubans scarified a good chunk of their lives and per-sonal hopes in the pursuit of national objectives and ide-als… Nadia Guerra, nightly radio host and born long after the revolutionary generation, is not convinced with the utopia and most of the time is at odds with the regime, even beyond the political reasons. Today she seeks to settle scores with herself.Nadia, her mother Albis Torres, who abandoned her when she was a child, and the exceptional Celia Sánchez Mandulay, assistant and probably Fidel’s lover, are the three main women in this story of recovery and fare-wells, of nostalgias and transformations, of exiles and continuation. Everything in Cuba, it seems, is either a loyalty or a betrayal.

Murillo, Catalina

Catalina Murillo fue a la Escuela Internacional de Cine (EICTV) de Cuba a estudiar guion audiovisual y ahí cuajó su vocación de narradora de historias. Al volver de Cuba, escribió la crónica de viaje Largo domingo cubano y terminó la carrera de Ciencias de la Comunicación en la Universidad de Costa Rica. Pronto migró a España, su otra patria. En Madrid vivió una década, trabajando como guionista de cine y tv, y como profesora en los Talleres Fuentetaja. Actualmente reside en Costa Rica, donde se ha decantado mayoritariamente por la narrativa. Ha publicado las novelas Marzo todopoderoso, Tiembla, memoria y Maybe Managua; la crónica de estampas gallegas Corredoiras y Eloísa vertical, libro de no ficción basado en la vida alucinada y alucinante de una esquizofrénica gallega. Es Murillo una escritora “todoterreno”, como dice Sergio Ramírez, y también ha escrito una obra de teatro, Dulcinea herstoria, que se representó en el Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica. Estudió de los 7 a los 17 en el Liceo Francés. Desde niña escribía cuentos, diarios y un periódico mural El Espeluznante, en los pasillos de su casa.

El mercenario que coleccionaba obras de arte

The  charismatic mercenary who narrates this story is a real character under the pseudonym Adrián Falcón, although throughout his active years he used others, such as El Parse, Garfio, Strelkinov ... Tender and diabolical, Falcón is now in his sixties and has survived his complex life story with a peculiar sense of humor. One must keep in mind that he was persecuted in the United States and in several Latin American countries for terrorism, was the linchpin of cases as scandalous as the Iran-Contra, and operated with the Colombian cartels to finance counterrevolutionary actions. Considering himself a "freedom fighter", he fought against the command of the Soviet Union, Sandinismo and Fidel Castro. Although at one point he was the FBI's target, he ends his fighting days as a condottiero for the CIA and unbelieving of everything. Disenchantment leads him to fight for his fate and to find an ally in Valentina, whom he meets in Paris and with whom he begins a relationship of interests; in her own way, she is too a survivor mercenary. This work offers a point of reference for those who wonder about the enemies that the Latin American left faced, and is the result of interviews with Falcon and the study of files carried out by Wendy Guerra, daughter of guerrilla idealism who has jumped the fence to take a look at the other side. What the critics have said about the author and her work: "'Everyone leaves is one of the great sentimental educations of Latin American literature." Christopher Domínguez Michael, Letras Libres «Nirvana del Risco is the first black Cuban heroine who is depicted naked, open and blatant before what many hide because of prejudices: bisexuality, racism, politics, fear and close intimacy with the enemy# The tragic fate of this heroin narrates a sensitive and little explored part of Latin American women's literature. With a magical and contemporary language, the author invites us to a unique journey bathed by sublime black tears.» (Sobre Negra) Viceversa «Sunday of Revolution moves between autobiography and metafiction, between the anguish of the writer and the examination of the construction of her work. This novel is even more incisive than all the rest that Wendy Guerra had written earlier." Maikel Ramírez, oigopalabra

Sguiglia, Eduardo

Eduardo Sguiglia nació en Rosario, vivió en México entre 1977 y 1982 y desde 1983 reside en Buenos Aires. Fue profesor regular de la UBA y primer embajador argentino en Angola. Es autor de varias investigaciones y ensayos, entre ellos “Agustín Tosco” y “El club de los poderosos”, que merecieron dos premios nacionales de economía. Sus relatos y novelas –“Fordlandia”, “No te fíes de mi si el corazón te falla” y “Un puñado de gloria” – fueron traducidas a diferentes lenguas y distinguidas en los concursos internacionales Dublín Literary Award y Grinzane Cavour. El periódico The Washington Post consideró a “Fordlandia” como una de las cuatro mejores obras de ficción del año 2002. También integró los jurados en narrativa de Casa de las Américas (Cuba) y Casa del Teatro (República Dominicana), y el panel de apertura del Festival de Literatura de Berlín (2007).