Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Cosecha de la FIL, Part 2: Pedro Angel Palou, Juan Villoro, Enrique Krauze, Teresa Carbajal Ravet, Tanya Huntington, Pedro Serrano, Carlos López de Alba

A book fair is a crucible of serendipity. Holas to Juan Villoro, whose story "Mariachis" is in BEST OF CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN FICTION*, (for which I translated a story by another Mexican writer, Alvaro Enrigue), and Sergio Troncoso, whom I just happened to see last month at the bodacious Texas Book Festival in Austin, here in Guadalajara for an event with the Goethe Institut. (Check out his blog, Chico Lingo, and in particular the piece about a real head-scratcher out of the Texas Library Association).

*BEST OF CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN FICTION presentation is tomorrow, Dec 3 @ 6 pm here at FIL.

History: Pedro Angel Palou (whose short story about an unusual town in the state of Puebla appears in my anthology, MEXICO: A TRAVELER'S LITERARY COMPANION) is one of the big stars of the FIL this year with his new book, LA CULPA DE MEXICO: LA INVENCION DE UN PAIS ENTRE GUERRAS, which is featured in towering stacks (literally-- when I pulled out a copy I was afraid I'd make the whole thing topple).

Enrique Krauze was on a panel about Mexican leaders of yore-- every chair was taken and the smidgen of aisle-space was for the sardines. Translation: I tried, but I couldn't squeeze in.

More translators: after the LITERAL presentation yesterday, saw Teresa Carbajal Ravet, who is doing so much to promote translation-- check out her blog Sententia Vera: Your Bilingual Connection to the Spanish Culture.

And poets! An all-around charming presentation of Tanya Huntington Hyde's beautiful new bilingual RETURN / EL REGRESO (with a glowing introduction by Pura López Colomé), what a delight to see Pedro Serrano and his new issue of PERIODICO DE POESIA and to meet Carlos López de Alba, editor of the bilingual magazine REVERSO with a special issue on Novísima Poesía Mexicana / Up-and-Coming Mexican Poets.

New schedule for Madam Mayo:
Monday: Books
Every other Tuesday: Blogs noted.
Wednesday: 5 links
Friday: News & Misc.

Except when not.

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