Alejandro Zambra

Alejandro Andrés Zambra Infantas ( Santiago, Chile, b. September 24, 1975) is a Chilean poet, short story writer and novelist. He has been recognized for his talent as a young Latin American writer, chosen in 2007 as one of the " Bogotá39" (the best Latin American writers under the age of 39) and in 2010 by ''Granta'' as one of the best Spanish-language writers under the age of 35.

Early life and education

Alejandro Zambra was raised in 1975 in Maipú, Chile, a suburb of Santiago, during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In a magazine interview with his close friend from his Master's program, Zambra explains his thoughts on growing up in Chile during the 1970s and 1980s. Growing up in such a time, Zambra considers himself and his generation, "children of the dictatorship." He later describes how his life changed after Pinochet's end of power, "The nineties were a time of smudging out. The dictatorship tried to impose all of those stupid discourses, and those discourses erased us."

Zambra studied at the Instituto Nacional General José Miguel Carrera and the University of Chile, from which he graduated in 1997 with a degree in Hispanic literature. He won a scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies in Madrid, where he obtained an MA in Hispanic studies. Back in Chile, he received a PhD in literature from the Pontifical Catholic University.

Career

Zambra describes the beginning of his writing career as, "I wouldn’t choose to be a writer. Actually I don’t think I ever chose it, I was just undeniably worse at other things." Zambra began with writing poetry, citing influences such as Nicanor Parra, Jorge Teillier, Gonzalo Millán, and Enrique Lihn, and his brief novels are noted for their poetic natures. He is often noted for his successful use of metafiction, or writing about writing, in his novels. Short stories and articles by Zambra have been featured in magazines such as ''The New Yorker'', ''The Paris Review'', ''McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', ''Babelia,'' and ''Quimera''. Zambra also has worked as a literary critic for the newspaper ''La Tercera'' and as a professor at the School of Literature at Diego Portales University in Santiago.

''Bonsái''

Zambra's first novel, ''Bonsái'', attracted much attention in Chile and appeared in the Spanish Editorial Anagrama, which was awarded the Chilean Critics Award for best novel of the year in 2006. As the highly influential Santiago newspaper ''El Mercurio'' summed up, "The publication of ''Bonsai'' ... marked a kind of bloodletting in Chilean literature. It was said (or argued) that it represented the end of an era, or the beginning of another, in the nation's letters." Bonsái was eventually translated into several languages, such as English at Melville Publishing House by Carolina Robertis. Just five years later, the book was turned into a film of the same name directed by Christían Jiménez, and presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.

''The Private Lives of Trees''

In this second novel, a writer tells his stepdaughter a bedtime story called "The Private Lives of Trees" (same title as the novel), which he plans to end when the mother returns home from work. This novel appears to be somewhat autobiographical, as the man in the story also has finished a book about bonsai trees, referencing Zambra's previous successful novel ''Bonsái''.

''Ways of Going Home''

His 2013 novel ''Ways of Going Home'' is fictional but draws heavily on Zambra's childhood experience under the Pinochet dictatorship. The novel switches between the memory of a nine-year-old boy growing up during a restrictive dictatorship and the life of the narrator who is writing the story, an example of meta-writing, or writing about writing. "This small novel contains a surprising vastness, created by its structure of alternating chapters of fiction and reality," Adam Thirlwell writes in The New York Times. "Almost every miniature event or conversation is subject to a process of revision, until you realize that Zambra is staging not just a single story of life under political repression, but the conditions for telling any story at all."

Bibliography

Poetry

* 1998 - ''Bahía Inútil'', poems 1996–1998, Ediciones Stratis, Santiago,
* 2003 - ''Mudanza'', Santiago, Quid Ediciones.

Novels

* 2006 - ''Bonsái'', Barcelona, Anagrama.
* 2007 - ''La vida privada de los árboles'', Barcelona, Anagrama.
* 2011 - ''Formas de volver a casa'', Barcelona, Anagrama.
* 2014 - '' Facsímil'', Santiago, Hueders; Buenos Aires, Eterna Cadencia (2015); Madrid, Sexto Piso (2015).
* 2020 - ''Poeta chileno'', Barcelona, Anagrama.

Short stories

* 2013 - ''Mis documentos'' (Anagrama, Barcelona), 11 stories, translated as ''My documents''
* 2022 - ''Skyscrapers'' (The New Yorker), translated by Megan McDowell

Criticism and essays

* 2010 - ''No leer'', compilation of critiques, Barcelona, Alpha Decay, 2012.
* 2019 - ''Tema libre'', compilation of short stories, essays, and chronicles, Barcelona, Anagrama.

Movies adaptions

* '' Bonsái'', 2017
* ''Family Life'', 2011

English translations

* ''Bonsai''. Translated by Carolina De Robertis. Melville House Publishing, 2008.
* ''The Private Lives of Trees''. Translated by Megan McDowell. Open Letter Books, 2010.
* ''Ways of Going Home''. Translated by Megan McDowell. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.
* ''My Documents''. Translated by Megan McDowell. McSweeney's, 2015.
* ''Multiple Choice''. Translated by Megan McDowell. Penguin Books

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