CONTEMPORARY SPANISH AUTHORS: JOSÉ MARÍA MERINO, JULIA OTXOA, ÁNGELES ENCINAR & IGNACIO MARTINEZ DE PISÓN April 17, 2012

Tuesday, April 17, 6:00 p.m.
Instituto Cervantes Auditorium
31 W. Ohio St.
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 335-1996
[email protected]

In Spanish with English simultaneous translation
Register at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/234435
The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Each author will speak on their own work: their literary conception and their process around artistic creation. José María Merino e Ignacio Martínez de Pisón will concentrate on their novels and short stories while Julia Otxoa will focus on her poetry and short narrative. Ángeles Encinar, professor of Spanish Literature and Literary Criticism, will develop a piece that approximates the works of these acclaimed authors.


6:00 – 6:20 pm An experience of fiction
José María Merino

6:20 – 6:40 pm The universal symbolism in my poetry and prose
Julia Otxoa

6:40 – 7:00 pm Returning to the real world
Ignacio Martinez de Pisón
7:00 – 7:20 pm Three examples of current Spanish prose: José María Merino, Julia Otxoa and Ignacio Martínez de Pisón by Ángeles Encinar

7:20 – 8:00 pm Roundtable Discussion. Moderator follow by a Q & A.

José María Merino
José María Merino’s extensive body of work includes novels, short stories, legends, travel books, essays and poetry. Born in La Coruña (1941), his first narrative foray was Novela de Andrés Choz (1976) for which he was awarded the Novel and Short Story Prize. He followed up with El caldero de oro (1981) and La orilla oscura (1985) which took home the National Critics Award. In 1986, with El oro de los sueños, he began the trilogy that he later united under one title, Las crónicas mestizas (1992) and which includes, in addition to that first novel, La tierra del tiempo perdido (1987) and Las lágrimas del sol (1989). He subsequently published El centro del aire (1991), Las visiones de Lucrecia y la ruina de la Nueva Restauración (1996), Miguel Delibes Narrative Award, Intramuros (1998), Los invisibles (2000), El heredero (2003), Ramón Gómez de la Serna Narrative Award, El lugar sin culpa (2007), Torrente Ballester Award, and La sima (2009). For Los trenes del verano –No soy un libro- in 1993 he was granted the National Children’s and Juvenile Literature Award, and he successfully navigated the difficult terrain between the short novel and the long story with Cuatro nocturnos (1999).

The story genre has always been part of his literary trajectory. In 1982, the volume entitled Cuentos del reino secreto appeared, and to which he added with El viajero perdido (1990), Cuentos del Barrio del Refugio (1994), Días imaginarios (2002), NH Prize for Stories, Cuentos del libro de la noche, La glorieta de los fugitivos (2007), where he reunited a good part of his mini-fictions and won the Salambó Award, Las puertas de lo posible. Cuentos de pasado mañana (2008), a collection of all of his stories between 1982 and 2004: Historias del otro lugar (2010), and his most recent volume, El libro de las horas contadas (2011) was just recently published. In March 2008, he was elected to Spain’s Royal Academy, and that same year he was awarded the Castilla y León Prize for Arts and Letters.

Julia Otxoa:
Poet, narrator and graphic artista whose body of work counts more than thirty published titles of poetry and prose, including the stand-out collection of poems Taxus Baccata, and the collection of short stories Un extraño envío which have been translated into several languages and included in diverse Spanish and American anthologies. Among her Works are the poetry collection Luz del aire in collaboration with the sculptor Ricardo Ugarte (1982 ); Centauro (1989); L’eta dei barbari (1997); La Nieve en los manzanos (2000); Al calor de un lápiz (2001); Gunten Café (2004 ); Taxus baccata (with drawings by Ricardo Ugarte, 2005) Anotaciones al margen (Plaquet with drawings by Ricardo Ugarte, 2008); La lentitud de la luz (2008); Poemas de un ratón (2010 ) and the story books Kískili-Káskala (1994); Un león en la cocina (1999); Variaciones sobre un cuadro de Paul Klee (2002 ), Un extraño envío (2007) and Un lugar en el parque (2010). Anthologies that contain her work include: Galería de hiperbreves (2002); Sea breve por favor (2002); Fábula Rasa (2005); Ciempiés-Los microrrelatos de Quimera (2005); Poesía Visual Española (2007) y Complicidades (2008).
www.juliaotxoa.net

Ignacio Martínez de Pisón:
Holds Degrees in Spanish Philology from the University of Zaragoza and Italian Philology from the University of Barcelona Licenciado. In addition to crafting short stories and novels, he has written screenplays and had several of his narrative works adapted for the screen, including Carreteras secundarias, directed in Spain by Emilio Martínez Lázaro and in France by Manuel Poirier. His literary career began with his novel, La ternura del dragón (1984) and was followed it up with Nuevo plano de la ciudad secreta (1992), Carreteras secundarias (1996), María bonita (2001), El tiempo de las mujeres (2003), Dientes de leche (2008) and El día de mañana (2011). He masterfully combined biographical re-creation with historical reporting in Enterrar a los muertos (2005), to which we must add the volumen of reports Las palabras justas (2007). Other notables amongst his storybooks include: Alguien te observa en secreto (1985), Antofagasta (1987), El fin de los buenos tiempos (1994), Foto de familia (1998) and Aeropuerto de Funchal (2009). He also wrote a magnificent anthology of stories about the Spanish civil war entitled, Partes de guerra (2009).

Official Website: http://chicago.cervantes.es