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Enrique Vila-Matas
Enrique Vila-Matas was born in Barcelona in 1948. His works include Bartleby & Co, Montano, Never Any End to Paris, The Vertical Journey, winner of the Premio Romulo Gallegos, and Dublinesque, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. 'February 2008' is an excerpt from his novel Dietario Voluble, published by Anagrama in 2008.

Articles Available Online


Writers from the Old Days

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Issue No. 13

Enrique Vila-Matas

TR. J. S. Tennant

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Issue No. 13

Augusto Monterroso wrote that sooner or later the Latin American writer faces three possible fates: exile, imprisonment or burial.   I met Roberto Bolaño...

poetry

January 2015

Litanies of an Audacious Rosary

Enrique Vila-Matas

TR. Rosalind Harvey

poetry

January 2015

FEBRUARY 2008   * I’m outraged, but I’ve learned a way of reasoning that quickly defuses my exasperation. This...

dear angélica   dear angélica I can’t make it I got stuck in the elevator between the ninth and tenth floors and by the time the elevator man realised it was already ten-thirty   dear angélica I can’t make it I had a little problem at home my hair got caught in the washing machine actually it’s still stuck now I’m dictating this email to my neighbour   dear angélica I can’t make it my dog died and was resurrected and ascended to heaven I spent the whole afternoon involved with firemen and aerial ladder trucks   dear angélica I can’t make it I lost my bank card in an atm I went to complain to the security guard who was actually a crook he stole my purse and I had amnesia from the shock   dear angélica I can’t make it my boss called at the last minute saying he went to hawaii on a motorcycle and I had to go to work in a bikini so I caught a cold   dear angélica I can’t make it I’m in a cybercafe by the orinoco I was kidnapped by a terrorist group please deposit ten thousand dollars in account 11308-0 at citibank valparaiso branch thanks I’ll pay you back when I get home     *     woman in red   what could she want this woman in red she must want something since she’s wearing that dress it can’t be just a casual choice it could have been yellow green or even blue but she chose red she knows what she wants and she chose that dress and she’s a woman so based on these facts i can conclude i know what she wants it’s elementary, dear watson: what she wants is me it’s me she wants it could only be me what else could it be     *     grad   men women are born they grow they see how others are born and how they disappear from this mystery a cemetery arises they bury bodies then forget   men women are born they grow they see how others are born and how they disappear they record, record with their phones make spreadsheets then forget   they hope their time comes slowly men women don’t know what comes next so they go to grad school   men women are born they grow they know that one day they’re born and the next they disappear but that’s not why they forget to turn off the lights and the gas     *     These poems were selected for inclusion in the January 2015 Translation Issue

Contributor

August 2014

Enrique Vila-Matas

Contributor

August 2014

Enrique Vila-Matas was born in Barcelona in 1948. His works include Bartleby & Co, Montano, Never Any End to...

Leaving Theories Behind

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Issue No. 9

Enrique Vila-Matas

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Issue No. 9

I. I went to Lyon because an organisation called Villa Fondebrider invited me to give a talk on the relationship between fiction and reality as...

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fiction

Issue No. 3

Rehearsal Room

KJ Orr

fiction

Issue No. 3

He was one of those people you see every day and start to believe you know when in fact...

fiction

March 2013

If Not, Not

Natasha Soobramanien

fiction

March 2013

This story may or may not end in Venice and in silent, unacknowledged tragedy but let it begin here,...

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August 2017

What Makes A Gallery Programme?

Pac Pobric

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August 2017

Of his art dealer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Pablo Picasso once wondered, ‘What would have become of us if Kahnweiler hadn’t...

 

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