REPRESENTATIVE

TEXTS AND
AUTHORS FROM
ASIA, ANGLO-
AMERICA, EUROPE,
LATIN AMERICA,
AND AFRICA
21 S T CENTURY LITERATURE FROM
THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD
REPRESENTATIVE

AUTHORS FROM
ASIA
HARUKI MURAKAMI
(January 12, 1949)
Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His
books and stories have been bestsellers in
Japan as well as internationally, with his
work being translated into 50 languages
and selling millions of copies outside his
native country.
His work has received numerous awards,
including the World Fantasy Award, the
Frank O'Connor International Short Story
Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the
Jerusalem Prize.
 YOUNG-HA KIM
(November 11, 1968)
Young-ha Kim was born in Hwacheon. He moved from
place to place as a child, since his father was in the
military. As a child, he suffered from gas poisoning
from coal gas and lost his memory before he was ten.

He was educated at Yonsei University in Seoul,

majoring in business administration, but he didn't
show much interest in it. Instead, he focused on
writing stories. Kim, after graduating from Yonsei
University in 1993, began his military service as an
assistant detective at the military police 51st Infantry
Division near Suwon.

His career as a professional writer started in 1995

right after discharge.
 ETGAR KERET
(August 20, 1967)
Keret's first published work was Pipelines
(‫צינורות‬, Tzinorot, 1992), a collection of short
stories which was largely ignored when it
came out.

His second book, Missing Kissinger (‫געגועיי‬

‫לקיסינג'ר‬, Ga'agu'ai le-Kissinger, 1994), a
collection of fifty very short stories, caught
the attention of the general public.

The short story "Siren", which deals with the

paradoxes of modern Israeli society, is
included in the curriculum for the Israeli
matriculation exam in literature.
 ETGAR KERET
(August 20, 1967)
Mộng-Lan is a Vietnamese-born American award-
winning poet, writer, painter, photographer,
musician, composer, singer, Argentine tango
dancer, choreographer, and educator. Former
Stegner Fellow at Stanford University,

Fulbright Scholar, she has published seven books

of poetry & artwork, three chapbooks, and has
won numerous prizes such as the Juniper Prize
and the Pushcart Prize. Poems have been
included in international and national
anthologies such as Best American Poetry
Anthology and several Norton anthologies.
OUYANG JIANGHE
(1956)
Ouyang Jianghe was born in Luzhou, Sichuan
Province. He is a renowned Chinese poet,
critic of poetry and culture, and calligrapher
and is the Director of the publication Today
and a professor at Beijing Normal University.
Among his works published in the People’s
Republic of China are 10 books of poetry -
including Who Leaves and Who Stays, Such
a Learned Hunger, and Da Shi da Fei - and
his collection of reviews and essays
Standing on This Side of Fabrication.
 GOVIND VINAYAK KARANDIKAR
(August 23, 1918 – March 14, 2010)
Govind Vināyak Karandikar better known as
Vindā Karandikar, was a well-known
Marathi writer. In 2003, he was presented
with the Jnanpith Award, which is India's
one of the most prestigious literary awards.
He has also received for his literary work
some other awards, including the
Keshavasut Prize, the Soviet Land Nehru
Literary Award, Kabir Samman, and India's
highest literary award, for lifetime
achievement, the Sahitya Akademi
Fellowship in 1996.
ALI AHMAD SAID ESBER
(January 1, 1930)
Ali Ahmad Said Esber, also known by the
pen name Adonis or Adunis, is a Syrian
poet, essayist, and translator who is
considered one of the most influential
and dominant Arab poets of the modern
era.
He led a modernist revolution in the
second half of the 20th century,
"exerting a seismic influence" on Arabic
poetry comparable to T.S. Eliot's in the
anglophone world.
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM ASIA

SCHEHERAZADE
(Short Story) by Haruki Murakami (Japan)

Murakami has a new short story in the recent New Yorker (Oct. 13, 2014), the title of which,
"Scheherazade," immediately attracted my attention, having recently read the new translation of
1001 Nights by Hanan Al-Shakyh and Marina Warner's wonderful study, Stranger Magic: Charmed
States and the Arabian Nights.

Murakami's story is about a guy who cannot, for some undisclosed reason, leave his house. A
nameless woman is assigned (but we do not know by whom) to come to his house regularly to
bring him food and supplies. She also has sex with him and tells him stories; thus, he calls her
Scheherazade. The main story she tells him in the story we are reading is about her breaking into
the home of a boy with whom she was obsessed while in high school, (she is middle-aged now),
fantasizing about him, stealing trivial items, and leaving other items in their place.
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM ASIA

THEIR LAST VISITOR

(sudden fiction) by Kim Young Ha (South Korea) translated by Dafna Zur
Yŏngsŏn was twenty-four. She had majored in sculpture at a prestigious art school, then
married Chŏngsu, a graduate of the same school, before the ink was dry on her diploma. It
happened so quickly that most of their friends thought the wedding invitations were a
practical joke. She was already working as a graphic designer at an Internet firm, and a
friend had gotten Chŏngsu a job as a set designer for a movie producer. Yŏngsŏn's small-
scale start-up company kept her busy, but Chŏngsu was even busier. He usually worked
through the night. Movies were always produced on a tight schedule. Chŏngsu basically
lived with his tool belt on. He'd pound away for days constructing an elaborate set only to
bash it to pieces within hours. That was life: good work went completely unnoticed while
carelessness was criticized ruthlessly. He had to put up with a lot of crap. Yŏngsŏn tended
to think her husband's talents were going to waste, but she kept her opinion to herself.
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM ASIA

ELEGY
Mong-Lan (Vietnam)
& what if hope crashes through the door what if
that lasts a somersault?
hope for serendipity
even if a series of meals were all between us
even if the eons lined up out
of order
what are years if not measured by trees
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM ASIA

THE WHEEL The fan begins to whirl

Vinda Karandikar (India) and turn the air into a whirlpool of
fire,
Someone is about to come but making a noise bigger than the
doesn't. Is about house.
to turn on the stairs but doesn't.
Someone is about to come and
I button my shirt doesn't.
come from the laundry with all its
It doesn't matter.
dazzling blots,
Calmly I lean against the wall,
like one's peculiar fate.
I shut the door, sit quietly. become a wall.
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM ASIA

SONG

by Ali Ahmad Said Esber (Syria)

translated by Khaled Mattawa

and I, under the skin of words,

Bells on our eyelashes
on the beaming banks of foam,
and the death throes of words,
a poet who sang and died
and I among fields of speech,
leaving this signed elegy
a knight on a horse made of dirt.
before the faces of poets,
My lungs are my poetry, my eyes a book,
for birds at the edge of the sky.
 ANGLO-AMERICA
Anglo-America (also referred to as Anglo-Saxon America)
most often designates to a region in the Americas in which
English is the main language and British culture and the
British Empire have had a significant historical, ethnic,
linguistic, and cultural impact.
Anglo-America is distinct from Latin America, a region of the
Americas where Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese,
and French) are prevalent. The term Anglo-America frequently
refers specifically to the United States and Canada, by far the
two most populous English-speaking countries in North
REPRESENTATIVE

AUTHORS FROM
ANGLO-AMERICA
JENNY HOLLOWELL
Jenny Hollowell is an American novelist and short fiction
writer, and a partner and executive producer of music
house and record label Ring The Alarm.

Her debut novel Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe was

published in 2010, leading her to be named one of the
"best new writers" by The Daily Beast.

Hollowell received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth

University, where she studied film and photography,
and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of
Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in Fiction
and recipient of the Balch Short Story Award. Her short
fiction has appeared in Glimmer Train, Scheherezade,
and the anthology New Sudden Fiction, and was named
a distinguished story by The Best American Short
Stories.
PADGETT POWELL
(April 25, 1952)
Padgett Powell is an American novelist in the
Southern literary tradition. His debut novel, Edisto
(1984), was nominated for the American Book Award
and was excerpted in The New Yorker.

Powell has written five more novels including A

Woman Named Drown (1987), Edisto Revisited
(1996), a sequel to his debut, Mrs. Hollingsworth's
Men (2000), The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?
(2009), and You & Me (2012), his most recent and
three collections of short stories. In addition to The
New Yorker, Powell's work has appeared in The Paris
Review, Harper's, Grand Street, Oxford American,
The New York Times Book Review, and other
publications.
 RICHARD BLANCO
(February 15, 1968)
Richard Blanco was born in Madrid and immigrated to
the United States as an infant with his Cuban-exile
family. He was raised in Miami and earned a BS in civil
engineering and MFA in creative writing from Florida
International University. Blanco has been a practicing
engineer, writer, and poet since 1991.

His collections of poetry include City of a Hundred

Fires (1998), which won the Agnes Starrett Poetry
Prize; Directions to the Beach of the Dead (2005),
winner of the PEN/American Beyond Margins Award;
Looking for the Gulf Motel (2012), winner of the Thom
Gunn Award, the Maine Literary Award, and the
Paterson Prize; One Today (2013); Boston Strong
(2013); and How to Love a Country (forthcoming
2019).
YANN MARTEL
(June 25, 1963)
Yann Martel is a Spanish-born Canadian author
best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning
novel Life of Pi, a number 1 international
bestseller published in more than 50 territories. It
has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide
and spent more than a year on the Bestseller
Lists of the New York Times and The Globe and
Mail, among many other best-selling lists.

It was adapted to the screen and directed by Ang

Lee, garnering four Oscars (the most for the
event) including Best Director, and won the
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.
DAVID STEPHEN MITCHELL
(January 12, 1969)
An English author, he is known for such
bestselling novels as number9dream and
Cloud Atlas. The latter work was made
into a major motion picture.
After completing his education, he taught
English in Japan for eight years and used
his savings to finance his early writing
career.
Both his early novel, Ghostwritten, and
his later work, Cloud Atlas, consist of
separate but interrelated stories.
 ANN GRAY
(May 4, 1946)
The author of several collections including
Painting Skin (Fatchance Press, 1995) and The
Man I Was Promised (Headland, 2004), Ann was
commended for the National Poetry Competition
2010 and won the Ballymaloe Poetry Prize in
2014.

Her studies for an MA in Creative writing from the

University of Plymouth led to her collection of
poems about the sudden loss of her partner, At
The Gate (Headland, 2008). ‘My Blue Hen’ is one
of many written since that publication, which, she
says, “prove” she was not finished with those
poems.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
ANGLO-AMERICA
A HISTORY OF EVERYTHING, INCLUDING YOU
(sudden fiction) by Jenny Hollowell (United States)

A History of Everything, Including You.” by Jenny Hollowell was overall very

descriptive, so descriptive one could imagine everything that she was speaking of.
She started this story as a very broad and simple statement of how Earth started and
or created. As the story starts to blossom one can tell that this story became more
personal than the Earth being created. Jenny starts to open up and goes on to explain
what seems to be the most important events of her life in a metaphorical way.
Through descriptive sentences, one can feel the emotional connection she was having
toward this writing. Also since Jenny is telling this story in first person everything
seems very personal at this point. Overall I loved this story and how open she seems
to be with her life events, from the beginning of time to the end of her life.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
ANGLO-AMERICA
CHICKENS
(microfiction) by Elaine Margarell (United States)

Elaine Magarrell's "Chickens" relies upon the ridiculous to raise very

serious questions. Both amusing and troubling by turns, the story
introduces such devices as a "chicken angel" to interrogate the
value of religious faith and to raise ethical concerns about eating
meat. It exploits the fine line between probable opposites - such as
laughter and sadness, absurdity and profundity - to ask us to
rethink the relationship between dinner and morality.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
ANGLO-AMERICA
A GENTLEMAN’S C
(microfiction) by Padgett Powell (United States)

My father, trying to finally graduate from college at sixty-two, came, by curious

circumstance, to be enrolled in an English class I taught, and I was, perhaps, a bit tougher
on him than I was on the others. Hadn’t he been tougher on me than on other people’s
kids growing up? I gave him a hard, honest, low C. About what I felt he’d always given me.
We had a death in the family, and my mother and I traveled to the funeral. My father
stayed put to complete his exams–it was his final term. On the way home we learned that
he had received his grades, which were low enough in the aggregate to prevent him from
graduating, and reading this news on the dowdy sofa inside the front door, he leaned over
as if to rest and had a heart attack and died. For years I had thought that the old man’s
passing away would not affect me, but it did.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
ANGLO-AMERICA
ONE TODAY
(poem) by Richard Blanco (United States)
My face, your face, millions of faces in
morning’s mirrors,
One sun rose on us today, kindled over our
shores,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing
into our day:
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm
of traffic lights,
across the Great Plains, then charging across
the Rockies. fruit stands: apples, limes, and
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, oranges arrayed like rainbows
a story
begging our praise.
told by our silent gestures moving behind
windows.
.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
ANGLO-AMERICA
WE ATE THE CHILDREN LAST
(science fiction) by Yann Martel (Canada)

A man dying from intestinal cancer volunteers for an

experimental treatment that involves receiving the transplanted
digestive system of a pig. The transplant is successful but leaves
him with a pig-like penchant for consuming garbage. Considering
this an acceptable trade-off for a medical breakthrough, society
initially accepts the widespread adoption of the technique but
eventually collapses as the transplant recipients' insatiable
appetites evolve into cannibalism.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
ANGLO-AMERICA
THE RIGHT SORT
(twitter story) by David Stephen Mitchell (United Kingdom)

The short story The Right Sort, written by David Stephen Mitchell - author
of the famous novel Cloud Atlas - was posted to Twitter in a course of
seven days. The story, which consists of over 280 Tweets, generated some
excitement when it first started out. However, later Tweets received fewer
and fewer Retweets and Likes. The idea for the project had come from
Mitchell's publisher and served as means to generate excitement about
Mitchell's forthcoming novel The Bone Clocks. Nevertheless, Mitchell
turned the short story into a novel of its own called Slade House, a year
after publishing it on Twitter.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
ANGLO-AMERICA
ONE NIGHT
(elegy) by Ann Gray (United Kingdom)

One night you’ll come back and I’ll wake

to see you moving noiselessly in your socks,

you’ll look bewildered, nothing’s quite the same.

You’ll be hunting through the drawers,

wondering where your clothes are.

I won’t move or speak, I’ll try not to breathe…

 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
ANGLO-AMERICA
ONE NIGHT
(elegy) by Ann Gray (United Kingdom)

Carol Ann says: This comes from the Cornwall-based poet Ann Gray’s
new collection At The Gate (Headland, 2008) a powerfully moving
sequence of elegies to her partner, who was killed in a car accident.
In this poem, the grief of bereavement re-imagines the lover as a
Lazarus figure, returning from the dead, puzzled and disconcerted at
the small changes in the bedroom and the changing, ongoing lives of
the living. The closing question is unbearably poignant, holding a
deeper, tragic meaning beneath its colloquial surface.
REPRESENTATIVE
AUTHORS FROM
CONTINENTAL
EUROPE
JEAN-MARIE GUSTAVE LE CLEZIO
(April 13, 1940)
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, usually
identified as J. M. G. Le Clézio, is a
French writer and professor. The author
of over 40 works, he was awarded the
1963 Prix Renaudot for his novel Le
Procès-Verbal and the 2008 Nobel Prize
in Literature for his life's work, as an
"author of new departures, poetic
adventure and sensual ecstasy,
explorer of a humanity beyond and
below the reigning civilization".
 CARLOS RUIZ ZAFÓN
(September 25, 1964)
Ruiz Zafón was born in the City of Barcelona.
Growing up in Spain, he began his working life by
making money in advertising. His grandparents
had worked in a factory and his father sold
insurance. In the 1990s Ruiz Zafón moved to Los
Angeles where he worked briefly in screen writing.
He is fluent in English. Ruiz Zafón's first novel, El
Príncipe de la Niebla (The Prince of Mist, 1993),
earned the Edebé literary prize fosr young adult
fiction. He is also the author of three additional
young adult novels, El palacio de la medianoche
(1994), Las luces de septiembre (1995) and Marina
(1999). The English version of El Príncipe de la
Niebla was published in 2010.
TEOLINDA GERSAO
(January 30, 1940)
Teolinda Gersão is a Portuguese writer.
Born in Coimbra, she studied at the
Universities of Coimbra, Tübingen and
Berlin. She also taught at the Technical
University of Berlin, Lisbon University,
and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa,
among others. A full-time writer since
the mid-1990s, Gersao is the author of
more than a dozen books. She has won
several literary prizes for her work. Her
novel The Word Tree set in colonial
Mozambique, was translated into
ZDRAVKA EVTIMOVA
(July 24,1959)
Zdravka Evtimova (born in Pernik, Bulgaria) is a
contemporary Bulgarian writer. She has four short
story collections and four novels published in
Bulgarian. Her short stories have appeared in
many international literary journals. Some of her
short story collections were translated into other
languages.

As well as being an author, Zdravka works as a

literary translator from English, French, and
German. Zdravka Evtimova has translated more
than 25 novels by English, American, and
Canadian authors into Bulgarian language. She
translates the work of Bulgarian writers into
English and is a member of the Bulgarian Writers'
 EAVAN BOLAND
(September 24, 1944)
Eavan Boland is an Irish poet, author, and professor. She
is currently a professor at Stanford University, where she
has taught since 1996.

Her work deals with the Irish national identity and the
role of women in Irish history. Several poems from
Boland's poetry career are studied by Irish students who
take the Leaving Certificate.

She is a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for

Poetry. Eavan Boland's first book of poetry was New
Territory published in 1967 with Dublin publisher Allen
Figgis. This was followed by The War Horse (1975), In
Her Own Image (1980) and Night Feed (1982), which
established her reputation as a writer on the ordinary
lives of women and on the difficulties faced by women
 GOTTFRIED BENN
(May 2, 1886 – July 7, 1956)
Gottfried Benn was a German poet, essayist, and
physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in
Literature five times. He began his literary career
as a poet when he published a booklet titled
Morgue and other Poems in 1912, containing
expressionist poems dealing with the physical
decay of flesh, blood, cancer, and death. Benn's
poetry projects an introverted nihilism, that is, an
existentialist outlook that views artistic expression
as the only purposeful action. In his early poems,
Benn used his medical experience, often using
medical terminology, to portray humanity morbidly
as just another species of disease-ridden animal.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
CONTINENTAL EUROPE
HAZARAN
(short story) by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (France),

translated by Patricia E. Frederick

The story "Hazaran" draws upon the genre of the fairy tale are the motifs of the quest; the obstacle; the
test, the supernatural assistance offered to the hero or heroine; and the transformation of the hero or
heroine who passes from a state of deprivation to a state.
In "Hazaran" these traditional elements structure a parable of modern life. The modern fairy tale is given a
realistic setting. A resident of a shanty town of immigrants on the outskirts of a modern city, the heroine
alia is a victim of capitalist exploitation. Her encounter with Martin the supernatural agent will transform
her life by showing her the path to spiritual happiness. At the same time, Martin will transform the life of
the entire community.
The name "Hazaran" has at least three meanings in his story; It refers to the story we are reading; it is the
name of the fairy tale that Martin tells the children; it is the name of the fabulous country of the birds in
that story
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
CONTINENTAL EUROPE
KISS
(blog fiction) by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spain)

“I never told anybody, but getting that apartment was

nothing short of a miracle. All I knew about Laura was that
she worked part-time at the offices of the landlord on the first
floor, and that she kissed like a tango. I met her on a July
night when the skies blanketing Barcelona sizzled with steam
and desperation. I had been sleeping on a bench in a nearby
square when I was awakened by the brush of her lips…”
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
CONTINENTAL EUROPE
THE RED FOX FUR COAT
(sudden fiction) by Teolinda Gersao (Portugal)

“The Red Fox Fur Coat” by Teolinda Gersão starts off with a bank clerk (I’m
gonna call her Sheila for the rest of this presentation because I like that more
than “the bank clerk”) making her way home one day after work. She walks
by a furrier’s shop and is immediately entranced with a red fox fur coat. But
the shop is closed, so she eagerly waits until the next morning to try it on. The
saleswoman remarks that the coat could have been made for Sheila.
Unfortunately, the price is five times what she can afford, but the saleswoman
says that she can spread out the payments. She quickly decides to work over
the holidays so she can buy the coat.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
CONTINENTAL EUROPE
BLOOD OF A MOLE
(sudden fiction) by Zdravka Evtimova (Bulgaria)

It’s about a nameless character who runs a pet shop. Barely anyone ever came in and bought
anything, until a strange lady, featuring mole-like tenancies, comes in asking for the blood of
a mole. She claimed 3 drops of it would cure her son’s illness. The pet shop owner didn’t
have moles, but felt awful, so he/she (never specified) slipped into the back room and slit
his/her wrist. The old lady came back days later saying her son could walk again.
Fast forward to a few days later and a man comes in claiming that he needs three drops of
mole’s blood so that he can save his dying wife. He took blood from the pet shop owner’s
wrist as well and left. Finally, the next day, a mob of people waited by the pet shop, all
wanting mole’s blood, all clutching little glass bottles, and knives.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
CONTINENTAL EUROPE
ATLANTIS - A LOST SONNET
(poem) by Eavan Boland (Ireland)
I miss our old city —
white pepper, white pudding, you and I meeting
How on earth did it happen, I used to wonder under fanlights and low skies to go home in it.
that a whole city—arches, pillars, colonnades, Maybe
not to mention vehicles and animals—had all what really happened is
one fine day gone under? this: the old fable-makers searched hard for a
word
I mean, I said to myself, the world was small
then. to convey that what is gone is gone forever and
Surely a great city must have been missed? never found it. And so, in the best traditions of
where we come from, they gave their sorrow a where we come from, they gave their sorrow a
name name

and drowned it and drowned it

Paraphrase: The author begins by wondering how an entire
city could have suddenly disappeared underwater. Then he
relates this to his old city and describes some of the features
he remembers most. Lastly, he gives a possible explanation
for how the city disappeared: it was just a story made up to
help others emphasize the sorrows of losing something
forever.

Connotation: This poem has an extended metaphor that

compares the lost city of Atlantis to the sorrows of people. I
think the author is trying to portray how it is to come to the
realization that memories in the past are gone forever.
REPRESENTATIVE

AUTHORS FROM
LATIN AMERICA
ANA MARIA SHUA
(April 22, 1951)
Ana María Shua (born in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine
writer who has published over eighty books in numerous
genres including: novels, short stories, micro fiction,
poetry, drama, children's literature, books of humor and
Jewish folklore, anthologies, film scripts, journalistic
articles, and essays.

Her writing has been translated into many languages,

including English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese,
Dutch, Swedish, Korean, Japanese, Bulgarian, and Serbian.
Her stories appear in anthologies throughout the world.
She has received numerous national and international
awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is one of
Argentina’s premier living writers. She is particularly
known in the Spanish-speaking world on both sides of the
ANTONIO UTGAR
(1974)
Antonio Ungar (born in Bogotá, Colombia) a globetrotter, he
has lived in Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom, and is
currently based in Palestine-Israel. He devotes part of his
time to writing non-fiction about his home country, Colombia,
as well as the Middle East, and was granted the Colombian
National Journalism Award in 2005.

He has published two short story collections, Trece circos

comunes (Thirteen Ordinary Circuses, 1999) and De ciertos
animals tristes (Of Certain Sad Animals, 2000), as well as
other stories which have appeared in international literary
magazines and more than twenty-five anthologies. Ungar has
also tried his hand at longer narrative forms: his novel
Zanahorias voladoras (Flying Carrots) was published in 2004,
followed by Tres ataúdes blancos (Three White Coffins),
which won the Herralde Prize in 2010 and was shortlisted for
JORGE LUIS ARZOLA
(1966)
Jorge Luis Arzola was born in Jatibonico, Cuba.
Unlike those authors who have up to now shaped
the image of Cuban literature, Guillermo Cabrera
Infante, Miguel Barnet, Jesús Díaz and Reinaldo
Arenas, Arzola belongs to a new generation of
writers, the so-called “novísimos“. This generation
is on the one hand influenced more than the
preceeding one by the new awareness of national
identity which has resulted following the Cuban
revolution, and on the other hand, following the
political and economic crisis facing the country
after the fall of the Iron Curtain, it questions these
ideals.
 RAÚL ZURITA
(January 10, 1950)
Raúl Zurita Canessa is a Chilean poet. He won the
Chilean National Prize for Literature in 2000. Zurita
spent four years earning his living as a computer
salesman during a period of financial hardship. At the
same time he was a guest reader at the Faculty of
Philosophy at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago,
where he met writers and intellectuals such as Nicanor
Parra, Ronald Kay, Christian Hunneus and Enrique Lihn.
The first of his poems to be published appeared in
1975 in "Manuscritos", the Philosophy Faculty's
publication. Four years later "Purgatorio" was
published, the first part of a poetic trilogy which Zurita
would not conclude for another fourteen years. The
book became a huge success.
 FRANCISCO XAVIER ALARCÓN
(February 21, 1954 – January 15, 2016)
Francisco Xavier Alarcón was a Chicano poet and
educator. He was one of the few Chicano poets to
have "gained recognition while writing mostly in
Spanish" within the United States. His poems
have been also translated into Irish and Swedish.
He made many guest appearances at public
schools so that he could help inspire and influence
young people to write their own poetry especially
because he felt that children are "natural poet.“
Alarcón wrote poetry in English, Spanish and
Nahuatl, often presented to the reader in a
bilingual format. His poetry is considered
minimalist in style.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM LATIN
AMERICA
LIKE HERCULES
(microstory) by Ana Maria Shua (Argentina)
translated by Steven J. Stewart

Yŏngsŏn was twenty-four. She had majored in sculpture at a prestigious art school, then
married Chŏngsu, a graduate of the same school, before the ink was dry on her diploma. It
happened so quickly that most of their friends thought the wedding invitations were a
practical joke. She was already working as a graphic designer at an Internet firm, and a friend
had gotten Chŏngsu a job as a set designer for a movie producer. Yŏngsŏn's small-scale start-
up company kept her busy, but Chŏngsu was even busier. He usually worked through the
night. Movies were always produced on a tight schedule. Chŏngsu lived with his tool belt on.
He'd pound away for days constructing an elaborate set only to bash it to pieces within hours.
That was life: good work went completely unnoticed while carelessness was criticized
ruthlessly. He had to put up with a lot of crap. Yŏngsŏn tended to think her husband's talents
were going to waste, but she kept her opinion to herself.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM LATIN
AMERICA
HONEY
(flash fiction) by Antonio Utgar (Columbia)

translated by Katherine Silver

From Colombia comes the story “Honey” by Antonio Ungar in which a

young boy watches his sister cover herself with honey: “She defies the
world, she smiles and waits. Little by little her body begins to transform
getting thicker and darker.” Suspense builds from the first sentence to
the end of the story. A character fascinated by someone in peril, wrought
in beautiful prose, reminds the reader of accidents along a freeway and
rubberneckers cruising by, the universality of human curiosity.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM LATIN
AMERICA
ESSENTIAL THINGS
(sudden fiction) by Jorge Luis Arzola (Cuba)

A man recalls the time he and two friends ran away from their
village to sail across the sea to freedom.
I’m trying very hard to think of a single thing I enjoyed in this
story. Honestly, there is nothing. The story is no more than a
collection of incoherent memories – which may or not be true –
that do nothing more than bore me. An essential thing this
story is not.
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM LATIN
AMERICA
YOU DIDN'T KNOW
(poem) by Idea Vilarino (Uruguay)

translated by Jesse Lee Kercheval

My poor love
you believed
that it was so
you didn’t know.
It was richer than that
it was poorer than that
it was life and you
with your eyes closed
you saw your nightmares
and you called that
life.
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM LATIN
AMERICA
THE DESET OF ATACAMA V
(poem) by Rail Zurita (Chile) translated by Anna Deeny

Speak of the whistle of Atacama

the wind erases like snow
the color of that plain
i. The Desert of Atacama soared over infinities of
deserts to be there
ii. Like the wind feel it pass whistling through the
leaves of the trees
iii. Look at it become transparent faraway and
just
accompanied by the wind

iv. But be careful: because if ultimately the Desert

of Atacama where not where it should be the
whole world would begin to whistle through the
leaves of the trees and when we'd see
ourselves
in the same never transparent whistles
in the wind swallowing the color of this pampa
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM LATIN
AMERICA
TO THOSE WHO HAVE LOST EVERYTHING
(poem) by Francisco X. Alarcon (Mexico)

All of the unattributed lines in this remembrance come from

Alarcón’s poem, To Those Who Have Lost Everything. Francisco X.
Alarcón is survived by his partner of over two decades, Javier Pinzón,
who he was only allowed to marry during the California legal window
for gay marriage in 2008, as well as his mother, two sisters, four
brothers, nine nieces and nephews and the many students fortunate
enough to have his classes at the Santa Cruz and Davis campuses of
the University of California.
REPRESENTATIVE

AUTHORS FROM
AFRICA
 J. M. COETZEE
(February 9, 1940)
John Maxwell Coetzee is a South African-born
novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and
recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.
He has also won the Booker Prize twice, the
Jerusalem Prize, CNA Prize (thrice), the Prix
Femina étranger, The Irish Times International
Fiction Prize as well as other awards and
honors, holds a number of honorary
doctorates and is one of the most acclaimed
and decorated authors in the English
language. He relocated to Australia in 2002
and lives in Adelaide. He became an
HENRIETTA ROSE-INNES
(September 14, 1971)
Henrietta Rose-Innes is a South African
novelist and short-story writer. She was
the 2008 winner of the Caine Prize for
African Writing for her speculative-fiction
story "Poison". Her novel Nineveh was
shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times
Prize for Fiction and the M-Net Literary
Awards. In September of that year her
story "Sanctuary" was awarded second
place in the 2012 BBC (Inter)national
Short Story Award.
PETINA GAPPAH
(1971)
Petina Gappah is a Zimbabwean lawyer and
writer. She writes in English, though she also
draws on Shona, her first language. She is
currently based in Berlin, where she has a
DAAD Artist-in-Residence fellowship. In 2016,
she was named African Literary Person of the
Year by Brittle Paper. Gappah's first book, An
Elegy for Easterly, a story collection that she
says is "about what it has meant to be a
Zimbabwean in recent times", was published
by Faber and Faber in April 2009 in the United
Kingdom and in June 2009 in the United
 IDEA VILARINO
(August 18, 1920 – April 28, 2009)
Idea Vilariño Romani was a Uruguayan poet,
essayist and literary critic. She belonged to
the group of intellectuals known as
"Generación del 45." In this generation, there
are several writers such as Juan Carlos Onetti,
Mario Benedetti, Sarandy Cabrera, Carlos
Martínez Moreno, Ángel Rama, Carlos Real de
Azúa, Carlos Maggi, Alfredo Gravina, Mario
Arregui, Amanda Berenguer, Humberto
Megget, Emir Rodríguez Monegal, Gladys
Castelvecchi and José Pedro Díaz among
others. She also worked as a translator,
 KOFI AWOONOR
(1935 – September 21, 2013)
Kofi Awoonor was a Ghanaian poet and author
whose work combined the poetic traditions of
his native Ewe people and contemporary and
religious symbolism to depict Africa during
decolonization. He started writing under the
name George Awoonor-Williams and was also
published as Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor. He taught
African literature at the University of Ghana.
Professor Awoonor was among those who
were killed in the September 2013 attack at
Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya,
where he was a participant at the Storymoja
LADAN OSMAN
Ladan Osman is a Somali-American poet and
teacher. Her poetry is centered on her Somali
and Muslim heritage, and has been published
in a number of prominent literary magazines.
In February 2014, Osman was named the
winner of the annual Sillerman First Book
Prize for African Poets for her collection The
Kitchen Dweller's Testimony. The $1000
award was accompanied by the publication of
her poetry anthology by the University of
Nebraska Press in conjunction with Amalion
Press.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
AFRICA
AS A WOMAN GROWS OLDER
(short story) by J.M. Coetzee (South Africa)

She is visiting her daughter in Nice, her first visit there in years. Her son
will fly out from the United States to spend a few days with them, on the
way to some conference or other. It interests her, this confluence of
dates. She wonders whether there has not been some collusion, whether
the two of them do not have some plan, some proposal to put to her of
the kind that children put to a parent when they feel she can no longer
look after herself. So obstinate, they will have said to each other: so
obstinate, so stubborn, so self-willed—how will we get past that obstinacy
of hers except by working together?
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
AFRICA
POISON
(science fiction) by Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa)

Henrietta Rose-Innes’ short story ‘Poison’ (from Homing 2010) is set in

the aftermath of a chemical explosion of cataclysmic proportions in
Cape Town. The story's protagonist and narrator, Lynn, is among the
last to flee the city; she ends up alone at an abandoned highway petrol
station. She sips Coke and eats crisps and waits passively – for a rescue
team, for the will to try and escape, or for the (presumably) inevitable
end. The story provides us with some clues as to her lack of motivation,
although she remains enigmatic.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
AFRICA
HYDE PARK
(creative non-fiction) by Petina Gappah (Zimbabwe)

I was a student when I made my first visit to London. It was the summer of
1997, I was poor and on a budget. I came just for the day, on a National
Express coach from Cambridge. I was a little uneasy because the driver spoke
loudly in a cockney accent, had a shaven head and tattoos that snaked up his
arms from his wrists and disappeared into his short sleeves. Dark thoughts of
what skinheads did to black people in Europe entered my mind. “Here you go
darlin’,” he said as he handed me my change. I was disarmed.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
AFRICA
THE FIRST CIRCLE
(poem) by Kofi Awoonor (Ghana) 2.
1. So this is the abscess that
the flat end of sorrow here hurts the nation—
two crows fighting over New Year's jails, torture, blood
Party
and hunger.
leftovers. From my cell, I see a
cold One day it will burst;
hard world. it must burst.
 REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
AFRICA
3.

When I heard you were taken

we speculated, those of us at large

where you would be

in what nightmare will you star?

That night I heard the moans

wondering whose child could now

be lost in the cellars of oppression.

Then you emerged, tall, and bloody-eyed.

It was the first time

I wept..
REPRESENTATIVE TEXTS FROM
AFRICA
TONIGHT
Tonight is a drunk man, his dirty shirt.

There is no couple chatting by the recycling bins,

offering to help me unload my plastics.

There is not even the black and white cat

that balances elegantly on the lip of the dumpster.

There is only the smell of sour breath. Sweat on the collar of my shirt.

A water bottle rolling under a car.

Me in my too-small pajama pants stacking juice jugs on neighbors’ juice

jugs.

I look to see if there is someone drinking on their balcony.

I tell myself I will wave.

Your best quote that reflects
your approach… “It’s one small
step for man, one giant leap for
mankind.”

- NEIL ARMSTRONG