Enrique Vila-Matas

Enrique Vilas-Matas
Born	Enrique Vilas-Matas (1948-03-31)31 March 1948 Barcelona, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Occupation	Author

Enrique Vila-Matas(born 31 March 1948 inBarcelona) is a Spanish author.He has authored several award-winning books that mix genres and has been branded as one of the most original and prominent writers in the Spanish language.

He is a founding Knight of the Order of Finnegans, a group which meets inDublinevery year on 16 June to honourJames Joyceand his novelUlysses.

Biography

Enrique Vila-Matas was born inBarcelonain 1948 to Enrique, who worked in the real estate business, and Tayo Vila-Mata. When he was 12 he began writing and later studied law and journalism.In 1968 became editor of the film magazineFotogramas.In 1970 he directed two short films,Todos los jóvenes tristes(All the sad youngsters) andFin de verano(The end of summer). In 1971 he did his military service inMelilla,where in the back room of a military supplies store, he wrote his first book,Mujer en el espejo contemplando el paisaje.On his return to Barcelona, he worked as a film critic for the magazinesBocaccioandDestino.Between 1974 and 1976 he lived inParisin a garret he rented from the writerMarguerite Duras,where he wrote his second novel,La asesina ilustrada.His third and fourth books,Al sur de los párpadosandNunca voy al cine,appeared in 1980 and 1982. With the publication of his bookHistoria abreviada de la literatura portátilin 1985 Vila-Matas began to be recognised.

He then published the short story collectionsUna casa para siempre,Suicidios ejemplaresandHijos sin hijos;Recuerdos inventadosis an anthology of his best stories. His following works were novels, includingLejos de Veracruz,Extraña forma de vida,El viaje vertical,Bartleby & Co.andMontano's Malady,among others. In 1992 he published a collection of articles and literary essays under the titleEl viajero más lento,which he followed up in 1995 withEl traje de los domingos.Other books containing literary essays includePara acabar entendamos nada(2003, Chile),El viento ligero en Parma(2004, Mexico; re-published in Spain, 2008), andAnd Pasavento ya no estaba(2008, Argentina).Never Any End to Paris(2003) tells of his Parisian experiences. In 2005Doctor Pasaventocame out, a book about the subject of disappearance and ‘the difficulty of being nobody’. This book closes his meta-literary trilogy on the pathologies of writing (Bartleby, MontanoandPasavento).

In September 2007 Vila-Matas returned to the short story, publishingExploradores del abismowithAnagrama.In 2008 cameDietario voluble,in which he opts more than ever for a formula that erases the borders between fiction, essay and biography. The book is a literary diary or a kind of guide that allows the reader to glimpse the work's internal structure and combines experiences of reading and life, personal memory, and an essayist's literary ideas. It was followed byElla era Hemingway / No soy Auster,two short texts published by Alfabia in the Cuadernos Collection.

In 2010 he returned once more to the novel withDublinesca,a book that deals with a publisher in crisis, and has since published several novels includingKassel no invita a la lógica(2014,The Illogic of Kassel),Marienbad electrique(2015) andMac y su contratiempo(2017,Mac and His Problem), as well as two short story collections. Described as "a masterpiece ofmetafiction",The English translation ofMac and His Problemwas longlisted for the 2020International Booker Prize.

Distinctions and prizes

Vila-Matas is a knight of the FrenchLegion of Honour,and has an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of the Andes, Venezuela.He has won the Ciudad de Barcelona prize and the VenezuelanRómulo Gallegos Prize(2001); the Meilleur Livre Etranger prize and the Fernando Aguirre-Libralire prize (2002); the Herralde prize, the Nacional de la Crítica prize, the Medicis-Etranger Prize, the Círculo de Críticos de Chile prize (2003), the Internazionale Ennio Flaiano prize (2006), the Fundación José Manuel Lara prize 2006, and the Real Academia Española prize 2006. In 2007 he won the Elsa Morante literary prize in the category Scrittori del Mondo, which each year honours a great foreign writer. In 2009 he received the Internazionale Mondello prize for the novelDottor Pasavento,translated into Italian by Feltrinelli. In 2011 he received the Bottari Lattes Grinzane Prize (Italy) the Prix Jean Carriere (France) and the Leteo Award (Spain) forDublinesque.In 2012 he received the Argital Award Bilbao City forAir of Dylanand thePremio Gregor von Rezzorifor the Italian translation ofExploradores del abismo(Esploratori dell’abisso). In 2014, he won thePremio Formentor de las Letras.In 2015, he won theFIL Literary Award in Romance Languagesvalued at $150,000. In 2016 he received the National Award of Catalonia.

He is a founding member of the Order of Finnegans,which takes its name from a pub inDalkey,Ireland, although there are those who believe it also comes from James Joyce's last novel,Finnegans Wake.The knights of the Order of Finnegans must venerate James Joyce's novelUlyssesand, if possible, attendBloomsday,June 16, each year inDublinon the sixteenth of June. This is a long day that culminates, at dusk, at theMartello towerinSandycove(where the novel begins) with participants reading sections fromUlyssesand then walking to Finnegan's pub in the neighbouring village of Dalkey. The other four founding members areEduardo Lago,Jordi Soler,Antonio Solerand Malcolm Otero Barral. His most recent novel is Montevideo. Ametafictionwork which reflects on writing and interconnected hotel rooms, such as one inMontevideoat Cervantes hotel that has been previously mentioned in the two short stories byAdolfo Bioy CasaresandJulio CortázarLa puerta condenada.

His work has so far been translated into thirty languages, including French, English, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Greek, Serbian, Swedish, Dutch, Hungarian, Hebrew, Turkish, Norwegian, Romanian, Polish, Korean, Catalan, Slovenian, Czech, Bulgarian, Finnish, Danish, Lithuanian, Slovakian, Mandarin, Portuguese and Croatian.

Of his novelDublinesque,Jacqueline McCarrick ofThe Times Literary Supplementwrote "...Vila-Matas has created a masterpiece".

Bibliography

Novels

• Mujer en el espejo contemplando el paisaje(Tusquets, 1973).
• La asesina ilustrada(Tusquets, 1977. Lumen, 2005).
• Al sur de los párpados(Fundamentos, 1980).
• Impostura(Anagrama,1984).
• Historia abreviada de la literatura portátil(Anagrama, 1985).
• Recuerdos inventados. Primera antología personal(Anagrama, 1994).
• Lejos de Veracruz(Anagrama, 1995).
• Extraña forma de vida(Anagrama, 1997).
• El viaje vertical(Anagrama, 1999).
• Bartleby y compañía(Anagrama, 2000).
• El mal de Montano(Anagrama, 2002).
• París no se acaba nunca(Anagrama, 2003).
• Doctor Pasavento(Anagrama, 2005).
• Exploradores del abismo(Anagrama, 2007).
• Dietario voluble(Anagrama, 2008).
• Dublinesca(Seix Barral, 2010).
• Perder teorías(Seix Barral, 2010).
• En un lugar solitario. Narrativa 1973-1984(Mondadori/Debolsillo, 2011).
• Aire de Dylan(Seix Barral, 2012).
• Kassel no invita a la lógica(Seix Barral, 2014).
• Marienbad electrique(Bourgois editeur, 2015).
• Mac y su contratiempo(Seix Barral, 2017)

Short story collections

• Nunca voy al cine(Laertes, 1982).
• Una casa para siempre(Anagrama, 1988).
• Suicidios ejemplares(Anagrama, 1991).
• Hijos sin hijos(Anagrama, 1993).
• Chet Baker piensa en su arte. Relatos selectos(Mondadori/Debolsillo, 2011).
• El día señalado[short story] (Nórdica libros, 2015).
• Vampire in Love(New Directions, September 2016).

Essays

• El viajero más lento(Anagrama,1992. Edición aumentada:El viajero más lento. El arte de no terminar nada,Seix Barral, 2011).
• El traje de los domingos(Huerga & Fierro, 1995).
• Para acabar con los números redondos(Pre-Textos, 1997).
• Desde la ciudad nerviosa(Alfaguara, 2000. Edición aumentada: Alfaguara, 2004).
• Extrañas notas de laboratorio(Ediciones El otro el mismo/CELARG, 2003. Edición aumentada: Ediciones El otro, el mismo, 2007).
• Aunque no entendamos nada(J. C. Sáez editor, 2003).
• El viento ligero en Parma(México, Sexto Piso, 2004. Madrid, Sexto Piso, 2008).
• Ella era Hemingway / No soy Auster(Ediciones Alfabia, 2008).
• Y Pasavento ya no estaba(Mansalva, 2008).
• Una vida absolutamente maravillosa. Ensayos selectos(Mondadori/De Bolsillo, 2011).
• Fuera de aquí. Conversaciones con André Gabastou(Galaxia Gutenberg, 2013). (Vila-Matas, pile et face, rencontre avec André Gabastou.Paris: Argol éditions, 2010).

Works translated into English

• A Brief History of Portable Literature(New Directions, 2015). Translated by Anne McLean.
• Bartleby & Co.(New Directions, 2004). Translated by Jonathan Dunne.
• Montano's Malady(New Directions, 2007). Translated by Jonathan Dunne.
• Never Any End to Paris(New Directions, 2011). Translated by Anne McLean.
• Dublinesque(New Directions in USA, Harvill in UK, 2012). Translated by Anne McLean and Rosalind Harvey.
• The Illogic of Kassel(New Directions, 2015). Translated by Anne McLean.
• Because She Never Asked(New Directions, 2015). Translated by Valerie Miles.
• Vampire in Love(New Directions, 2016). Translated by Margaret Jull Costa.
• Mac and his Problem(New Directions, 2019). Translated by Margaert Jull Costa and Sophie Hughes.

Further reading

• Andres-Suárez, Irene y Ana Casas (eds.)Enrique Vila-Matas.Madrid: Arco/ Libros, 2007 (Col. «Cuadernos de Narrativa»).
• Heredia, Margarita (ed.)Vila-Matas portátil. Un escritor ante la crítica.Barcelona: Candaya, 2007. [Includes a DVD:Café con Shandy(30’), a talk between Vila-Matas andJuan Villoro].
• Salas, Lisbeth.Infinitamente serio.Caracas: La cámara escrita, 2009.
• Pozuelo Yvancos, José María.Figuraciones del yo en la narrativa. Javier Marías y E. Vila-Matas.Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, Junta de Castilla y León, 2010. (Cátedra Miguel Delibes).
• Ríos Baeza, Felipe A. (ed.)Enrique Vila-matas. Los espejos de la ficción.México: Ediciones Eón/Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, 2012.
• Badia, Alain, Anne-Lise Blanc y Mar García (eds.)Geographies du vertige dans l'oeuvre d'Enrique Vila-Matas.Perpignan: Presses universitaires de Perpignan, 2013.
• Carrera, Guillermo.Crítica portátil. La estructura ausente en Doctor Pasavento (una aproximación narratológica).Puebla: Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, 2013.

External links

• "Enrique Vila-Matas on ‘Never Any End to Paris’", Interview by Scott Esposito, Paris Review, June 6, 2011[1]
• [2]Vila-Matas blog
• http:// enriquevilamatas(in Englishhttp:// enriquevilamatas /pagein.html)
• ALMODOVAR about Vila-Matas.https://web.archive.org/web/20081217031358/http:// pedroalmodovar.es/PAB_ES_09_T.asp
• New Republic Review of The Illogic of Kassel and A Brief History of Portable Literature[3]
• Miles, Valerie(2014).A Thousand Forests in One Acorn.Rochester: Open Letter. pp.497–504.ISBN978-1-934824-91-7.
• LibHub. VILA-MATAS TAKES A WALK[4]