Probable Lives
By (Author) Felipe Benitez Reyes
By (author) Aaron Zaritzky
BOA Editions, Limited
BOA Editions, Limited
3rd July 2006
United States
General
Non Fiction
Literary studies: general
Social and cultural anthropology
861.62
Hardback
140
Width 160mm, Height 236mm, Spine 20mm
368g
The writing of Felipe Bentez Reyes, a significant contributor to the Spanish Postmodern esthetic, speaks to issues of voice, persona, and the possibilities of fiction. Probable Lives won the 1996 National Book Award in Spain, the 1996 National Critics Award in Spain, and the City of Melilla International Prize. A book of heteronyms, the character-poets in Probable Lives read as forgotten or unknown twentieth-century authors, all rediscovered and compiled by an anthologist who is also the creation of Reyes. Probable Lives tweaks the notion of identity in ways that are both engaging and downright funny.
Felipe Benitez Reyes is a primary figure of the Spanish movement, The Poetry of Experience. Probable Lives won the 1996 National Book Award in Spain, 1996 National Critics' Award in Spain, and the City of Melilla International Prize. Other awards include the Ateneo de Sevilla Prize, the Ojo Critico Award from Radio Nacional, the Luis Cernuda Prize, and Fundacion Loewe Prize. Aaron Zaritzky holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Arizona (2004). He has worked as a language instructor for the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Arizona since 2002. He received a Tinker Grant to research Benitez's use of literary allusion in the Spanish National Library.