Category Literary Criticism

On criticism, generosity and gratitude: the travels of “Writing Galicia into the World”

January 23, 2013 · by · in Academia, Galicia, Galician literature, Literary Criticism, Literature, Reading, Spain · Leave a comment

Those of you with long memories may remember that nearly two years ago I published my second academic book, Writing Galicia into the World: New Cartographies, New Poetics, with Liverpool University Press (you can read about it here on the LUP website). The book explores the writings of and about Galicians in London and the wider world, by authors […]

Esther Tusquets (1936-2012): Ground-breaking Catalan/Spanish Writer and Publisher

July 23, 2012 · by · in Catalan literature, Ephemera, Literary Criticism, Literature, Spain, Spanish literature, Women's Writing · 2 Comments

I have just seen the very sad news that the ground-breaking writer and publisher Esther Tusquets has died in Barcelona at the age of 75. Tusquets was born a month after the start of the Spanish Civil War, and her earliest memories, as recounted in her first volume of autobiography Habíamos ganado la guerra (We had won […]

Books on Spain is One Year (and a few days…) Old!

August 3, 2011 · by · in Literary Criticism, Literature, Reading, Spain, Spanish literature, Women's Writing · 7 Comments

Goodness gracious me, but I appear to have let the Very Important Anniversary of my first-ever post here at Books on Spain pass me by. How remiss! So, let’s pretend it’s last Wednesday, and this is my one-year blogiversary post. A year ago, I didn’t know if I’d be able to keep this up for […]

Spanish literature in the Guardian, or, What have I been saying all these months?

March 29, 2011 · by · in English writing on Spain, Latin-American literature, Literary Criticism, Literature, Project Bestseller, Reading, Spain, Spanish literature · 4 Comments

¡Vaya! The UK’s Guardian newspaper is running a series on ‘the New Europe’ at the moment. It started two weeks ago with Germany, last week was France, and now we’re on to Spain, finishing up next week with Poland. This means lots of news stories focusing on Spain from the excellent Giles Tremlett, among others, […]

Gopegui in English at last – review roundup!

March 9, 2011 · by · in Literary Criticism, Literature, Reading, Spain, Spanish literature, Translation, Women's Writing · 3 Comments

I’m still here! Just been reading some great reviews of Belén Gopegui’s first novel, from 1993: La escala de los mapas / The Scale of Maps, in its new English translation by Mark  Schafer, published by City Lights (I was at college with a Mark Schafer; I wonder if it’s the same one? He was studying […]

And a followup, or, stop moaning, start shouting: 10 contemporary Spanish women writers to watch

February 10, 2011 · by · in Basque, Catalan literature, Galician literature, Literary Criticism, Literary Prizes, Literature, Reading, Spain, Spanish literature, Women's Writing · 6 Comments

And so, to follow up on the previous post and take up Vida’s challenge to do something about the fact that ‘the numbers of articles and reviews simply don’t reflect how many women are actually writing‘, here are my suggestions for 10 contemporary Spanish women fiction writers to watch. I’m not claiming they’re the ‘best’ […]