Mercedes Cebrián (born 29 May 1971) is a Spanish writer and translator.

Biography

Mercedes Cebrián holds a licentiate in Information Sciences from the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

, a master's degree in Hispanic Cultural Studies from

Birkbeck, University of London , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...

, and one in Hispanic Studies from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. She was a literary creation scholar at the

Residencia de Estudiantes The Residencia de Estudiantes, literally the "Student Residence", is a centre of Spanish cultural life in Madrid. The Residence was founded to provide accommodation for students along the lines of classic colleges at Bologna, Salamanca, Cambridge ...

of Madrid from 2002 to 2004 and of

Ledig House Art Omi, formerly Omi International Arts Center, is a non-profit international arts organization located in Columbia County in Ghent, New York. The organization provides residencies for writers, artists, architects, musicians, dancers and chore ...

(Hudson, New York), the , the

Civitella Ranieri Foundation The Civitella Ranieri Foundation is an American artists’ community located at a 15th-century castle in the Umbria region of Italy. The Foundation provides four sessions of six-week long unstructured residencies every year to visual artists, ...

(Italy), the Valparaíso Foundation (Spain), and the Santa Maddalena Foundation (Italy). She has written for various media outlets, such as the ''

La Vanguardia ' (; , Spanish for "The Vanguard") is a Spanish daily newspaper, founded in 1881. It is printed in Spanish and, since 3 May 2011, also in Catalan (Spanish copy is automatically translated into Catalan). It has its headquarters in Barcelona and i ...

'' supplement ''Culturas'', ''Babelia'' and ''El Viajero'' of ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'', and her texts have appeared in the literary magazines ''Turia'', ', ''Gatopardo'', ''

Revista de Occidente ''Revista de Occidente'' (Spanish: ''Magazine of the West'') is a cultural magazine which has been in circulation since 1923 with some interruptions. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is known for its founder, José Ortega y Gasset, a Spanish phi ...

'', and ''

Letras Libres ''Letras Libres'' is a Spanish-language monthly literary magazine published in Mexico and Spain. History and profile ''Letras Libres'', printed since 1999 in Mexico and since 2001 in Spain, has an average of eighteen to twenty articles per issue ...

'', as well as

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's ''Circumference''. She has been a columnist for the newspaper '' Público''. Cebrián began her writing career with prose, but in the first half of the 2000s she also opted for poetry. In this regard, the author explains: Her book of short stories and poems ''El malestar al alcance de todos'' was published in 2004. After the publication of ''La nueva taxidermia'', a book that brings together two novellas, from ''

El Cultural ''El Cultural'' is a Spanish weekly magazine dedicated to arts and culture. It is based in Madrid. It was a weekly supplement of '' La Razón''. It later was one of the weekly supplements of '' El Mundo'', as a part of Unidad Editorial S.A. In ...

'' commented: Mercedes Cebrián has been associated with the Nocilla Generation, an evaluation with which she does not agree, although she recognizes that with her "there are points of intersection, such as an interest in talking about the contemporary world." In 2017 the translator and professor Yolanda Morató accused Mercedes Cebrián and of the plagiarism of her translation and edition of

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Holoc ...

's ' (as ''Me acuerdo''). Cebrián denied this outright. She also refused to accept mediation from the Association of Translators, which offered to work out a ruling on the alleged plagiarism if both parties accepted its arbitration. The controversy had an impact on social networks and websites, in cultural journals (such as ''El Cultural'' and ''Estado Crítico''), and in the press itself, as well as in translation trade publications, such as that of the Literary Translators Club of Buenos Aires, with input from Jorge Fondebrider.

Publications

* ''El malestar al alcance de todos'', stories and poems, Caballo de Troya, Madrid, 2004, * ''Mercado común'', poems, Caballo de Troya, Madrid, 2006, * ''13 viajes in vitro'', chronicles, Blur Ediciones, Madrid, 2008, * ''Cul-de-sac'', short stories, Alpha Decay, Barcelona, 2009 * ''La nueva taxidermia'', Mondadori, Barcelona 2011, ; containing two novellas: ** ''Qué inmortal he sido'' and ''Voz de dar malas noticias'' * ''Oremos por nuestros pasaportes'', anthology, Mondadori Argentina, Buenos Aires, 2012; containing: ''El malestar al alcance de todos'', ''Mercado común'', ''La nueva taxidermia'', and an assorted "bonus track", * ''El genuino sabor'', novel, Literatura Random House, Barcelona, 2014, * ''Verano azul: unas vacaciones en el corazón de la transición'', essay, Alpha Decay, Barcelona, 2016, * ''Malgastar'', poetry, La Bella Varsovia, 2016,

As editor

* ''Madrid, con perdón'', anthology of texts about Madrid; Caballo de Troya, 2012,

Translations

* 2008 – '' The Architecture of Happiness'', by

Alain de Botton Alain de Botton (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British author and philosopher. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published ''Essays in Love'' (1993), w ...

(Lumen) * 2008 – ', by

(Impedimenta) * 2009 – ''

A Man Asleep ''A Man Asleep'' (french: Un homme qui dort) is a 1967 novel by the French writer Georges Perec. It uses a second-person narrative, and follows a 25-year-old student, who one day decides to be indifferent about the world. ''A Man Asleep'' was ad ...

'', by Georges Perec (Impedimenta) * 2010 – ', by Georges Perec (Impedimenta) * 2011 – ''

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' is the first novel by British author Alan Sillitoe and won the Author's Club First Novel Award. It was adapted by Sillitoe into a 1960 film starring Albert Finney, directed by Karel Reisz, and in 1964 was ...

'', by

Alan Sillitoe Alan Sillitoe FRSL (4 March 192825 April 2010) was an English writer and one of the so-called "angry young men" of the 1950s. He disliked the label, as did most of the other writers to whom it was applied. He is best known for his debut novel ...

(Impedimenta) * 2011 – ''It Chooses You'', by

Miranda July Miranda July (born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger; February 15, 1974) is an American film director, screenwriter, singer, actress and author. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital presentations and live performance art. She w ...

(

Seix Barral Planeta Corporación, S.R.L., doing business as Grupo Planeta (), is a Spanish mass media conglomerate operating in Spain, Portugal, France and Latin America. It is the world's leading Spanish-language book publisher. Editorial Planeta, founded in ...

) * 2012 – ''

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" is a short story by Alan Sillitoe, published in 1959 as part of a short story collection of the same title. The work focuses on Smith, a poor Nottingham teenager from a dismal home in a working clas ...

'', by Alan Sillitoe; prologue by Kiko Amat (Impedimenta) * 2013 – '' The Universe Versus Alex Woods'', by Gavin Extence (Seix Barral) * 2013 – ''Y revenir'', by

Dominique Ané Dominique Ané (born 6 October 1968), better known as "Dominique A", is a French songwriter and singer. Early life Born on 6 October 1968 in Provins, France, Dominique Ané is the only child of a teacher and a homemaker. He was passionate about ...

(Alpha Decay) * 2013 – ''Sempre Susan'', by

Sigrid Nunez Sigrid Nunez is an American writer, best known for her novels. Her seventh novel, '' The Friend'', won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. She is on the faculty of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Hunter College (CUNY). Biography Sigri ...

(Errata Naturae) * 2017 – ', by Georges Perec (Impedimenta)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cebrian, Mercedes 1971 births 21st-century Spanish poets 21st-century Spanish women writers Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Complutense University of Madrid alumni English–Spanish translators French–Spanish translators Living people Spanish translators Spanish women poets Spanish women short story writers Spanish short story writers University of Pennsylvania alumni Writers from Madrid 21st-century translators