Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Dublín

The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño, (translated by Natasha Wimmer), Picador, 591 pp, £8.99, ISBN: 978-0330509527

2666, by Roberto Bolaño, (translated by Natasha Wimmer), Picador, 912 pp, £8.99, ISBN: 978-0330447430

Amulet, by Roberto Bolaño, (translated by Natasha Wimmer Picador, 184 pp, £7.99, ISBN: 978-0330510493

If novels could write, they would write Bolaño novels.

Sigue leyendo / Read more… Dublin Review of Books

Exposición fotográfica / Photography Exhibition

Hoy / Today 10/02/2011 5:00 pm.

Presentación de libro / Book Launch

Hoy / Today 10/02/2011 6:00 pm

Instituto Cervantes
Lincoln House, Lincoln Place
Dublin 2

Reigning Spain: the coup that wasn’t

Javier Cercas’s new book, a mix of history, speculation and personal reflection, offers a compulsive narrative of the attempted military takeover of 1981

Read more… The Irish Times (by Alison Ribeiro de Menezes)

Javier Cercas presentará la traducción al inglés de su último libro, “Anatomía de un instante” (The Anatomy of a Moment” en el Instituto Cervantes de Dublín el próximo jueves, 10 de febrero. En conversación con Alison Ribeiro de Menezes.

Javier Cercas will be in Dublin nest Thursday for the book launch of “The Anatomy of a Moment” (Anatomía de un instante). He will talk with Alison Ribeiro (UCD) at Instituto Cervantes Dublin.

Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists

En octubre de 2010 la prestigiosa revista Granta lanzó un número titulado “Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists”. 

Los veintidós escritores en el listado fueron elegidos por un jurado distinguido de seis profesionales del mundo literario: Valerie Miles y Aurelio Major, editores de Granta en español; el novelista guatemalteco-estadounidense Francisco Goldman; la crítica, editora y escritora catalana Mercedes Monmany; el periodista británico y antiguo corresponsal para América Latina Isabel Hilton; y el escritor y director de cine argentino Edgardo Cozarinsky.

Para comenzar este año 2011, joven todavía, la biblioteca propone una selección de esta joven literatura.

La biblioteca propone / The library suggests

In October 2010, the prestigious magazine Granta launched an edition entitled “Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists”.

The twenty-two writers on the list were chosen by a distinguished panel of six judges: Valerie Miles and Aurelio Major, editors of Granta en español; Guatemalan-American novelist Francisco Goldman; Catalan critic, editor and author Mercedes Monmany; British journalist and ex-Latin American correspondent Isabel Hilton; and Argentinian writer and film-maker Edgardo Cozarinsky.

To start off the year, still young, we would like to invite you to peruse a selection of works by these young novelists

La biblioteca propone / The library suggests

Jorge Edwards

Jorge Edwards Valdés. (Santiago, Chile, 29 de junio de 1931). Escritor, diplomático y periodista chileno.

El próximo 3 de marzo participará en nuestro centro en una mesa redonda junto a Luis Alberto de Cuenca y Alicia Mariño. Estudia en la Escuela de Derecho de la Universidad de Chile y en el Instituto Pedagógico de la misma Universidad, posteriormente realiza sus estudios de postgrado en la Universidad de Princeton.

 Diplomático de carrera ente 1957 y 1973, ocupa diferentes puestos: primer secretario en París (1962-1967), consejero en Lima (1970), encargado de Negocios en La Habana (1970-1971) y ministro consejero en París (1971-1973). Tras el golpe de estado de Chile, en 1973 sale del Servicio Exterior y se marcha a Barcelona, donde trabaja como Director Editorial de Difusora Internacional y colabora como asesor en la Editorial Seix Barral. Funda, y posteriormente preside, el Comité de Defensa de la Libertad de Expresión, formado por escritores y periodistas. Entre 1994 y 1997 es embajador ante la Unesco en París, siendo miembro del Consejo Ejecutivo de la Unesco y Presidente del Comité de Convenciones y Recomendaciones (1995-1997), que se ocupa de los derechos humanos. Como escritor es autor de numerosas novelas, cuentos y ensayos. Destacan, entre otras obras, El peso de la noche, La mujer imaginaria, El origen del mundo, Gente de la ciudad, Las máscaras, Adios, poeta…

 Algunos de sus libros han sido traducidos a diversos idiomas. Colabora en diversos diarios europeos y latinoamericanos, como Le Monde, El País, Corriere della Sera, La Nación o Clarín, de Buenos Aires. Es miembro del consejo de redacción de las revistas Vuelta y Letras Libres de México y  ha dictado cursos sobre temas latinoamericanos en diversas universidades norteamericanas (Chicago, Georgetown) y europeas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona).

En 2010, el Rey Juan Carlos acordó concederle la nacionalidad española.

Es actualmente el embajador de Chile en Francia.

El próximo 3 de marzo participará en nuestro centro en una mesa redonda junto a Luis Alberto de Cuenca y Alicia Mariño.

 Jorge Edwards Valdés, (Santiago de Chile, Chile, 29th June, 1931), is a Chilean writer, diplomat and journalist.

He will visit the Instituto Cervantes in Dublin the 3rd of March 2011 to participate in a round table discussion. Jorge Edwards studied in the Faculty of Law in the University of Chile and the Teaching Institute of the same university, later carrying out post-graduate study in the University of Princeton.

A career diplomat from 1957 to 1973, he occupied various posts: first secretary in Paris (1962-1967), counsellor in Lima (1970), head of Trade in Havana (1970-1971), and minister-counsellor in Paris (1971-1973). Following the coup-d’état in Chile, in 1973, he left the Foreign Service and headed for Barcelona, where he worked as editor-in-chief for Difusora Internacional publishing house and advisor to Seix Barral.

He founded, and later presided, the Committee for the Protection of Free Speech, made up of writers and journalists. From 1994 to 1997, he was ambassador delegate to UNESCO in Paris, as a member of UNESCO’s executive council and President of the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations (1995-1997), the department responsible for human rights.

He has written numerous novels, short stories and essays. Some of his most acclaimed are El peso de la noche, La mujer imaginaria, El origen del mundo, Gente de la ciudad, Las máscaras, and Adios, poeta…

Several of his books have been translated into many languages. He contributes to various European and Latin-American newspapers, such as Le Monde, El País, Corriere della Sera, La Nación and Clarín, from Buenos Aires.

He is on the editing boards of Mexican periodicals Vuelta and Letras Libres, and has lectured on Latin-American issues in several universities across the US (Chicago, Georgetown etc.) and in Europe (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona).

In 2010 Edwards was granted Spanish citizenship by King Juan Carlos.

He is currently ambassador to Chile in France.

He will visit the Instituto Cervantes in Dublin the 3rd of March 2011 to participate in a round table discussion with Luis Alberto de Cuenca and Alicia Mariño

Mario Vargas Llosa receives today at 4:30 pm CET  the Nobel Prize for Literature 2010. 

Cervantes TV just launched this extensive interview with Mario Vargas Llosa, the last performed by the Cervantes Institute before the Peruvian author being awarded the Nobel Prize.

Among many other issues, Mario Vargas Llosa talks about his latest novel. This way, CervantesTV opens the Cervantes Printed Voices series, which will include testimony from several Spanish and Latin American authors.

The publication of this interview is another activity that the Cervantes Institute is conducting prior to the award, which culminate today in Stockholm.

Cervantes TV acaba de publicar esta extensa entrevista con Mario Vargas Llosa, última realizada por el Instituto Cervantes al autor hispanoperuano antes de ser galardonado con el premio Nobel, donde habla, entre otros muchos asuntos, de su última novela.

La de Vargas Llosa inaugura en la televisión del Cervantes la serie Voces impresas, que recogerá testimonios de diversos autores españoles e hispanoamericanos.

La publicación de esta entrevista es otra de las actividades que el Instituto Cervantes está llevando a cabo previamente a la entrega del premio, que culminarán hoy en Estocolmo.

Ana María Matute

Ana María Matute Ausejo (26th June 1926, Barcelona). Novelist and Spanish-language academic since 1996, she holds a preeminent place in Spanish literature, and is this year’s winner of the Miguel de Cervantes Award 2010.

She is part of the “astonished youth” generation (la generación de los jóvenes asombrados), a term she coined herself to refer to those authors who recount their childhood experiences of the Spanish Civil War /

Ana María Matute Ausejo (26 de junio de 1926, Barcelona). Novelista y académica de la lengua desde 1996, ocupa un lugar preferente en la literatura española. Premio de Literatura Miguel de Cervantes 2010.

Forma parte de la generación de los “jóvenes asombrados”, nombre que ella misma acuñaría a los autores que reflejan la situación de la Guerra Civil en su infancia.

Autora del mes / Author of the month

Ana María Matute, 85, has won the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Spanish language.

Culture Minister Ángeles González-Sinde announced this year’s winner, who has now earned every major prize in the field, from the National Literature Award in 2007 to the Nadal in 1959 and the Planeta in 1954.

Read more… EL PAIS English edition

Ana María Matute in Cervantes TV

Ana María Matute: Bio-Bibliografía (Biblioteca Instituto Cervantes)

Ana María Matute: Wikipedia (in English)

Last Monday, the 2011 longlist of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award  was announced.

The IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is the largest and most international prize of its kind. It involves libraries from all corners of the globe, and is open to books written in any language.

The Award, an initiative of Dublin City Council, is a partnership between Dublin City Council, the Municipal Government of Dublin City, and IMPAC, a productivity improvement company which operates in over 50 countries. The Award is administered by Dublin City Public Libraries.

 The nomination process for the Award is unique as nominations are made by libraries in capital and major cities throughout the world. Participating libraries can nominate up to three novels each year for the Award. Libraries interested in participating should contact the organisers for details.

This year, there are 6 novels written originally in Spanish that have been selected for this Award:

• Infinity in the Palm of her Hand by Gioconda Belli 
• Your Face Tomorrow: Poison, Shadow and Farewell by Javier Marías 
• Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Piñeiro 
• Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo 
• Season of Ash by Jorge Volpi      
• The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón 

Which one is your favourite?

Andrés Trapiello

Café Literario will be a setting for a special evening with the writer Andrés Trapiello. We will go through different layers and aspects of his versatile literary creation.

Andrés Trapiello. Born in Manzaneda de Torío (León) in 1953 and based in Madrid since 1975. Currently he works as a writer and freelance journalist collaborating with numerous publications.

As a poet he published Junto al agua (1980), Las tradiciones (1982), La vida fácil (1985), El mismo libro (1989), and complete poetry works entitled Las tradiciones (1991) and Acaso una verdad (1993) .

His novels are La tinta simpática (1988), El buque fantasma (1992), La malandanza (1996), Días y noches (2000) and Los amigos del crimen perfecto (2003), which received the Nadal Prize, Al morir don Quijote (2004) and Los confines (2009).

He published sixteen tomes of diaries entitled Salón de los pasos perdidos (Salon of lost steps).

10/11, 6pm. Café Literario, Instituto Cervantes Dublín
Moderación: Gabriel Sánchez Espinosa (Queen’s University Belfast)
En español con traducción al inglés disponible. | In Spanish with interpreting into English available.

Read more…

Prince of Asturias Awards Ceremony

October was the month of awards. On the 7^th October, the Swedish Academy awarded Mario Vargas Llosa the Nobel Prize for Literature.

On the 15^th October, Eduardo Mendoza received the Planeta Prize, the literary award with the highest financial pay-out in Spain, and on the 22^nd October, the prize-giving ceremony for the Prince of Asturias Awards took place in Oviedo.

The Prince of Asturias Awards are a series of annual prizes awarded in Spain by the Prince of Asturias Foundation to individuals, entities and organizations from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, humanities, or public affairs.

In November, we would like to invite our readers to get to know the work of some the Spanish and Latin American authors awarded Prince of Asturias Awards for Literature, whose work is perhaps less well-known in the public domain.

Read more…

Hector Abad’s tribute to his father, ‘the communist doctor’ murdered by Colombian paramilitaries in 1987, is warm, witty and moving…

New Spanish Books

One of the great attractions of learning a foreign language – especially one your parents don’t speak – is that feeling of a door opening onto secret territory.

Suddenly the hours spent poring over grammar books and verb tables yield their reward: here is a new world of landscapes, characters, sights and sounds one need not share with immediate family and friends.

I have a bad memory for fiction, but the first Spanish novels I read, at about fifteen, have stayed with me better than English novels read at the same time. Thanks to those books, I travelled to Spain long before actually setting foot on Spanish soil.

Read more… New Spanish writing, by Miranda France

Mario Vargas Llosa: Five essential novels

Wondering where to start with the new Nobel laureate? Here are five highlights

Mario Vargas Llosa

At last!

Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel prize for literature.

Congratulations Mario and thank you for your novels!

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa has won the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature.

The awarding committee said Vargas Llosa received the award “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt and defeat”.

The prize of 10 million Swedish krona (€1.07 million) was the fourth of this year’s Nobel prizes, following awards for medicine on Monday, physics on Tuesday and chemistry yesterday.

Read more… Irish Times

The Peruvian writer, novelist and politician Mario Vargas Llosa has won the 2010 Nobel prize for literature.

Cited by the Swedish Academy for “his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt and defeat”, the 10m SEK (£1m) award crowns a literary career that was launched in 1963 with his novel The Time of the Hero, and includes further books such as Conversation in the Cathedral (1969), Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977) and The Feast of the Goat (2000).

Read more… The Guardian

The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, whose deeply political work vividly examines the perils of power and corruption in Latin America, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.

Read More… The New York Times