Mephisto's Waltz: Selected Short Stories

by George Henson (Translator), Sergio Pitol (Author)

New
Paperback
2019
$15.27

One of Mexico's most culturally complex and composite writers. --Publishers Weekly
From the renowned Mexican literary master and author of the Trilogy of Memory (Deep Vellum) comes Mephisto's Waltz, bringing together the best short stories from celebrated writer Sergio Pitol's oeuvre. The Xavier Villaurrutia award-winning collection includes the titular story, Pitol's personal favorite. Selected by the author, each story is a glimpse into the works that first gained Pitol his status as one of the greatest living Mexican writers and showcases the evolution of his unique literary style.
Sergio Pitol (1933-2018) was one of Mexico's foremost writers and winner of the prestigious 2005 Cervantes Prize. He is the author of the three books in the Trilogy of Memory series: The Art of Flight, The Journey, and The Magician of Vienna, published in English by Deep Vellum. He is renowned for his intellectual career in both the fields of literary creation and translation.

Synopsis

One of Mexico's most culturally complex and composite writers. --Publishers Weekly

From the renowned Mexican literary master and author of the Trilogy of Memory (Deep Vellum) comes Mephisto's Waltz, bringing together the best short stories from celebrated writer Sergio Pitol's oeuvre. The Xavier Villaurrutia award-winning collection includes the titular story, Pitol's personal favorite. Selected by the author, each story is a glimpse into the works that first gained Pitol his status as one of the greatest living Mexican writers and showcases the evolution of his unique literary style.

Sergio Pitol (1933-2018) was one of Mexico's foremost writers and winner of the prestigious 2005 Cervantes Prize. He is the author of the three books in the Trilogy of Memory series: The Art of Flight, The Journey, and The Magician of Vienna, published in English by Deep Vellum. He is renowned for his intellectual career in both the fields of literary creation and translation.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 244
Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing
Published: 22 Jan 2019
ISBN 10: 1941920837
ISBN 13: 9781941920831
Book Overview:

Galleys mailing to all major review outlets as well as alternative review sources in spring 2017

Introduction request to Valeria Luiselli

Blurb requests targeting prominent literary and cultural figures such as Mario Bellatin, Alvaro Enrigue, Mauro Javier Cardenas, Daniel Alarcon, Cesar Aira, Enrique Vila-Matas

Mexican Embassy in DC and their Consulates in local markets to sponsor events with translator and homages to the author in public appearances in the US planned for festivals, bookstores, and universities throughout 2017 & 2018

Serial rights targeting The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Literal Magazine, Texas Monthly, Gulf Coast, McSweeney's, The White Review; One Story, Guernica, Tin House, Words Without Borders, Asymptote

Print publicity targeting literary journals and newspaper book sections

Promotion on LibraryThing, Goodreads, Riffle, and other social reading websites

Promotion on the publisher's website (deepvellum.org), Twitter feed (@deepvellum), and Facebook page (/deepvellum)

Promotion in the publisher's e-newsletters for weeks and months surrounding release

Promotion at publisher's booth at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference (AWP), American Library Association Conference, Modern Languages Association Convention, Texas Book Festival, Brooklyn Book Festival, the American Literary Translators Association Conference, Book Expo America, Dallas Book Festival, and Bay Area Book Festival.

Publicity targeting The New Inquiry, The Millions, Full-Stop, The Nervous Breakdown, HTMLGIANT, Three Percent, The Literary Saloon, the Quarterly Conversation, and more

Print and digital advertising in select literary journals and magazines and on their websites, such as Words Without Borders, Asymptote, World Literature Today, Literary Hub, Granta, The Rumpus, The White Review, A Public Space, Little Star, The Coffin Factory, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Electric Literature, Music & Literature, and others

Media Reviews

His literature reflects the droll and ironic constant of his observations... Pitol knew how to see others, and he managed to reconcile and reflect very different worlds. -- Elena Poniatowska, author of The Heart of the Artichoke

Pitol is a writer of another kind: his importance lies on the page, in the creation of his own world, in his ability to shed light on the world. -- Daniel Salda a Paris, author of Among Strange Victims

Pitol's short stories, essays and crime novels merge fiction with memoir in an imaginative swirl of contemplation and reflection. --Paulina Villegas, The New York Times

Author Bio

Sergio Pitol Demeneghi (1933-2018) was one of Mexico's most influential and well-respected writers, born in the city of Puebla. He studied law and philosophy in Mexico City, and spent many years as a cultural attach in Mexican embassies and consulates across the globe, including Poland, Hungary, Italy, and China. He is renowned for his intellectual career in both the field of literary creation and translation, with numerous novels, stories, criticisms, and translations to his name. Pitol is an influential contemporary of the most well-known authors of the Latin American Boom, and began publishing his works in the 1960s. In recognition of the importance of his entire canon of work, Pitol was awarded the two most important prizes in the Spanish language world: the Juan Rulfo Prize in 1999 (now known as the FIL Literary Award in Romance Languages), and in 2005 he won the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious Spanish-language literary prize, often called the Spanish language Nobel.

George Henson is a literary translator and assistant professor of translation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey. His translations include Cervantes Prize laureate Sergio Pitol's Trilogy of Memory, The Heart of the Artichoke by fellow Cervantes recipient Elena Poniatowska, and Luis Jorge Boone's Cannibal Nights. His translations have appeared variously in The Paris Review, The Literary Review, BOMB, The Guardian, Asymptote, and Flash Fiction International. In addition, he is a contributing editor for World Literature Today and the translation editor for its sister publication Latin American Literature Today.