My friends, please check out Bamboo City, the English language debut by City of Asylum / Pittsburgh Writer-in-Residence Israel Centeno. In it, he explores the tenuous spaces between dreams, fantasy, and reality. In a style that matches the steamy ambiguity of Bamboo City itself, Centeno brings our deepest secrets to the light of his cutting prose. The original Spanish appears next to Ezra Fitz's English translation in this limited edition chapbook.
Read the interview, Three Questions with Bamboo City translator Ezra E. Fitz
And read a review here, at The Northside Chronicle.
About the author: Israel Centeno was born in 1958 in Caracas, Venezuela, and currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a Writer-in-Residence with City of Asylum/Pittsburgh. He filters genre through so-called postmodernism to tackle tough topics like politics and human nature. He writes both novels and short stories, and also works as an editor and professor of literature. He has published nine books in Venezuela and three in Spain.
In 1992, Centeno’s first novel Calletania won Venezuela’s National Council of Culture award and was a finalist for the Municipal Prize for Fiction of Caracas. His novel Bajo las Hojas was among the ten finalists for the Iberoamericano Planeta-Casamérica prize in 2009. Centeno has also won prizes for poetry and short stories, and his work is studied in many universities.
About the translator: Ezra E. Fitz began his literary life at Princeton University, studying under the tutelage of James Irby, C.K. Williams, and Jonathan Galassi. His senior thesis was described by Robert Fagles as “a heartening manifesto” on the art of translation. Since then, he has focused his attention on current Latin American literature, including the controversial Crack generation and the McOndo movement. His translations have been praised by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Believer, among other publications. His work has appeared in The Boston Review and Harper’s Magazine, and he was a 2010 Resident at the Banff International Literary Translation Centre in Alberta, Canada. Fitz has also authored a novel of his own set in the New York neighborhoods of Morningside Heights and Crown Heights.
Read the interview, Three Questions with Bamboo City translator Ezra E. Fitz
And read a review here, at The Northside Chronicle.
About the author: Israel Centeno was born in 1958 in Caracas, Venezuela, and currently lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a Writer-in-Residence with City of Asylum/Pittsburgh. He filters genre through so-called postmodernism to tackle tough topics like politics and human nature. He writes both novels and short stories, and also works as an editor and professor of literature. He has published nine books in Venezuela and three in Spain.
In 1992, Centeno’s first novel Calletania won Venezuela’s National Council of Culture award and was a finalist for the Municipal Prize for Fiction of Caracas. His novel Bajo las Hojas was among the ten finalists for the Iberoamericano Planeta-Casamérica prize in 2009. Centeno has also won prizes for poetry and short stories, and his work is studied in many universities.
About the translator: Ezra E. Fitz began his literary life at Princeton University, studying under the tutelage of James Irby, C.K. Williams, and Jonathan Galassi. His senior thesis was described by Robert Fagles as “a heartening manifesto” on the art of translation. Since then, he has focused his attention on current Latin American literature, including the controversial Crack generation and the McOndo movement. His translations have been praised by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and The Believer, among other publications. His work has appeared in The Boston Review and Harper’s Magazine, and he was a 2010 Resident at the Banff International Literary Translation Centre in Alberta, Canada. Fitz has also authored a novel of his own set in the New York neighborhoods of Morningside Heights and Crown Heights.
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