Severina

Acknowledgments

The aphorisms of Yoshida Kenko on page 14 are from Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko, translated by Donald Keene (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998). The quotation from Rubén Darío’s “Canto de esperanza” (“Song of Hope”) on page 21 is from Stories and Poems/Cuentos y poesías, translated by Stanley Appelbaum (Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2002).

RODRIGO REY ROSA is perhaps the most prominent writer on the Guatemalan literary scene. Along with the work of writers like Roberto Bolaño, Horacio Castellanos Moya, and Fernando Vallejo, Rey Rosa’s fiction has been widely translated and internationally acclaimed. His books include Dust on Her Tongue, The Beggar’s Knife, and The Pelcari Project, all of which were translated into English by the late Paul Bowles. In addition to his many novels and story collections, Rey Rosa has translated books by Bowles, Norman Lewis, François Augiéras, and Paul Léautaud.

CHRIS ANDREWS was born in Newcastle, Australia, in 1962. He teaches at the University of Western Sydney. Among other works of fiction by Latin American authors, he has translated Roberto Bolaño’s By Night in Chile (New Directions, 2003) and César Aira’s Shantytown (New Directions, 2013). His book of poems Lime Green Chair (Waywiser, 2012) won the 2011 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize.