Reading from REX: José Manuel Prieto and Esther Allen

Where: 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco

Co-Sponsored by PEN West and the Center for the Art of Translation

REX is a sophisticated literary game rife with allusions to Proust and Borges, set in a world of wealthy Russian expats and mafiosos in western Europe. It is the final volume in a trilogy of novels that includes the acclaimed NOCTURNAL BUTTERFLIES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. NPR says, “Part Russian mafia thriller, part postmodern reflecting pool of sentence fragments and literary allusions, Jose Manuel Prieto’s confounding, glimmering REX celebrates the aesthetic and spiritual power of writing.” Read the rest of the review here.

Considered one of today’s most important Spanish-language authors, JOSE MANUEL PRIETO was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1962. He has lived and worked in Russia, Mexico, and the United States. In addition to several novels, his works include translations into Spanish of many Russian and Russian expatriate writers, among them Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Nabokov, and Joseph Brodsky. He is currently a visiting professor and distinguished lecturer at Princeton University.

ESTHER ALLEN, the translator of REX, is an assistant professor at Baruch College, CUNY. She is also a 2009-2010 fellow at the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, where she is editing and annotating Argentine author Adolfo Bioy Casares’s writings about his best friend Jorge Luis Borges. Her previous translations include works by Borges, Jose Marti, and Alma Guillermoprieto.

The Center for the Art of Translation, is a non-profit orgnization that promotes international literature and translation through programs in the arts, education, and community outreach. For more information on this organization, visit www.catranslation.org or call 415.512.8812.