Robert Shapard

Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-short Stories from the United States and Latin America Robert Shapard

Publisher Marketing: Following on the success of the Flash Fiction and Sudden Fiction series, Robert Shapard and James Thomas join with Ray Gonzalez in selecting works that each present a complete story in less than 1,500 words. Luisa Valenzuela, one of Latin America s most lauded writers, provides the introduction. Readers will delight in finding stars such as Junot Diaz, Sandra Cisneros, and Roberto Bolano alongside recognized masters like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, and Jorge Luis Borges. They will discover work from Andrea Saenz, Daniel Alarcon, and Alicita Rodriguez, as well as other writers on the rise. In Julio Ortega s Migrations, a Peruvian writer explores how immigrant speech and ethnic origins are a force of meaning that evolves beyond language. In Hair, by Hilma Contreras, a Caribbean pharmacist is driven mad by a young woman s luxuriant tresses. These stories stretch from gritty reality to the fantastical in a mix that is moving, challenging, humorous, artful, sometimes political, and altogether spectacular." Review Citations:

Publishers Weekly 12/07/2009 pg. 34 (EAN 9780393336450, Paperback) - *Starred Review

Contributor Bio:  Shapard, Robert Robert Shapard directed the University of Hawaii MFA program and now lives in Austin, Texas. Contributor Bio:  Thomas, James No Information Available. Contributor Bio:  Gonzalez, Ray Ray Gonzalez received his MFA in creative writing from Texas State University and is a professor in the English Department and Creative Writing Program at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of ten books of poetry including Faith Run (University of Arizona Press, 2009); Cool Auditor: Prose Poems (BOA Editions, 2009); The Religion of Hands (2005), which received the 2006 Latino Heritage Award for Best Book of Poetry; The Hawk Temple at Tierra Grande Poems (2002), a winner of a 2003 Minnesota Book Award; Turtle Pictures (2000), a winner of a 2001 Minnesota Book Award; and The Heat of Arrivals (1996), a winner of a 1997 PEN/Josephine Miles Book Award. He is the author of three books of nonfiction: Renaming the Earth: Personal Essays (University of Arizona Press, 2008), Memory Fever (1999), and The Underground Heart: A Return to a Hidden Landscape: Essays (2002), which received the 2003 Carr P. Collins/Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best Book of Nonfiction. He is also the author of two books of short stories: The Ghost of John Wayne, and Other Stories (2001) and Circling the Tortilla Dragon: Short-Short Fiction (2002). His poetry has appeared in the 1999, 2000, and 2003 editions of The Best American Poetry. Contributor Bio:  Valenzuela, Luisa Luisa Valenzuela was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1938. In 1958, she moved to France and wrote her first novel while living in Paris. In 1979, she moved to the United States and lived in New York for ten years, working as a writer in residence at the Center for Inter-American Relations at NYU and Columbia. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1983.