Volume 37, Issue 3

Contributors

Gilbert Alter-Gilbert is a Critic and
translator living in California. He
edited the anthologies Life and Limb
and Pipe Dreams (both Hijinx Press).

Enrique Anderson-Imbert was born
in Argentina in 1910. His literary career
began in journalism, but in 1947 he was
exiled to the United States under Perón
and he entered academia. Best known as
a literary critic, he has also produced various
novels and short stories. His many books
include Spanish-American Literature: A History
(Wayne State University) and the story collections
Woven on the Loom of Time (University of Texas
Press) and The Other Side of the Mirror (Southern
Illinois State University).

José Antonio Burciaga was raised in the
West Texas border town of El Paso. He
is a seasoned Chicano cultural activist,
muralist, humorist and founding member
of the comedy group Culture Clash. Burciaga
lives in Monterrey. Among his works are
Undocumented Love, awarded the Before
Columbus American Book Award for poetry,
Spilling the Beans and Drink Cultura:
Chicanismo (both Joshua Odell Editions).

Calvert Casey was born in Baltimore,
Maryland, in 1923, of Cuban parents.
He was educated in Cuba but lived abroad
from 1946-57, sometimes publishing in
English. His first story appeared in the
New Mexico Quarterly and won him a
prize from the publisher Doubleday.
After the outset of the Cuban Revolution,
he worked as a magazine editor of the
prestigious Casa de las Americas until forced to
exile. He died in Italy in 1969. Casey
published a collection of stories, El
Regreso (Ediciones R), forthcoming in
English by Duke University Press.

Jack López Eestavillo has an MFA from
the University of California at Irvine.
His work is featured in Iguana Dreams
(HarperCollins), Current from the
Dancing River (Hartcourt Brace), and
Muy Macho (Anchor). He teaches at
California State University at Northridge.

Dick Gerdes is a critic and translator.
His translations include A World
for Julius, by Alfred Bryce Echenique
(University of Texas Press) and The
Forth World, by Diamela Eltit (University
of Nebraska Press). He teaches at The
University of New Mexico.

Verónica González was born in
Mexico City, raised in Los Angeles and
now lives, writes and teaches in New
York. She is currently at work on her
first novel.

Vivian Leal is a Cuban-American writer
who grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She
holds an MFA from the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst. Her work is
included in the upcoming anthology New
World: Young Latino Writers (Delta). She
currently writes and lives in Michigan.

James López holds a Master’s degree in
Contemporary Latin American Narrative
from the Universidad de Chile. Cousin Myth:
or, Beside the Tracks forms part of his novel
Emoria at the Tracks, a portion of which will
be included in the upcoming anthology New
World: Young Latino Writers (Delta). López
is currently living in Miami, where he is
completing a collection of stories written in Spanish.

José Matosantos is a graduate of
Amherst College. A native of Puerto
Rico, in Spring 1996 he was an
Amherst College Copeland Fellow.

Augusto Monterroso, a native of
Guatemala, has lived in Mexico since
1956. His books in English include
The Black Sheep and Other Fables
(Doubleday) and Complete Works and
Other Stories (University of Texas
Press).

John H.R. Polt is Professor Emeritus
of Spanish at the University of California,
Berkeley. His research has concentrated
on modern Spanish literature, especially
that of the 18th century. His translations
include works by Juan Bautista Alvarado,
Camilo José Cela, and Victoria de Stefano.
His translation of the complete short stories
of Calvert Casey is forthcoming by Duke
University Press. The present translation
of “A Little Affair” is from the 1962 edition
of Casey’s El regreso.

Gregory Rabassa is an internationally
renowned translator. His credits include
the translations of One Hundred Years
of Solitude by Gabriel García Marquez,
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar, and Paradiso
by José Lezama Lima. He teaches at Queens
College.

Edward Rivera was born in Puerto
Rico in 1944 and came to New York
City at the age of seven. He graduated
from the City College of New York
and received an M.A. from Columbia
University. His major work is Family
Installments (Penguin), a semi-fictional
memoir about a Puerto Rican family in
New York’s El Barrio. Rivera teaches
at The City College of New York.

Rodrigo Rey Rosa was born in Guatemala
in 1958 where he completed his studies. He
then lived in New York and Morocco. Paul
Bowles has translated two collections of his
work into English: The Beggar’s Knife
and Dust on her Tongue (both City
Lights). He has also been translated
into German and French. Rosa divides
his time between Morocco, Guatemala,
and the United States.

Ana María Shua was born in Argentina
in 1951. She has published children’s books,
novels, and story collections, including
Viajando se Conoce Gente and El Libro de
los Recuerdos (both Planeta). She has received
a Guggenheim Fellowship and currently
teaches at the Universidad Nacional de
Buenos Aires.

Ilan Stavans is a Mexican novelist and critic.
His works in English include The Hispanic
Condition (Harper Perennial), The One-
Handed Pianist and Other Stories and Art
and Anger: Essays on Politics and the
Imagination (both University of New
Mexico Press). He is currently editing
The Oxford Book of Latin American Essays.
Nominated for the National Book Critics
Circle Award, he teaches at Amherst College.

Piri Thomas lives in Berkeley, California.
His classic autobiography Down
These Mean Streets (Penguin) was
published in 1967. His other books
include Savior, Savior, Hold My Hand
and Seven Long Times (both Arte
Publico Press).

Irene Vilar was born in Puerto Rico and
graduated from Syracuse University. She
has co-authored a children’s book, Diario de
Viaje (Scholastic), and is currently working
on a novel. She divides her time between
Syracuse and Man-o’ War Cay, Abaco, in
the Bahamas. Her piece in this issue is the
prologue to her book A Message from God
in the Atomic Age, to be published by
Pantheon later this year.

cover artist: Pedro Meyer has won
numerous awards for his photography,
including a fellowship from the
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation,
with which he supported his many
photographic expeditions represented
in his book Truths & Fictions.
Meyer’s innovative use of the medium
was also featured prominently in
Metamorphoses: Photography in the
Electronic Age (Aperture 136, 1994).
A traveling exhibition of Truths &
Fictions will be on view at major
museums in Europe, Mexico and the
United States through 1997.