Before publishing his much acclaimed novels I Dreamt the Snow was Burning and Burning Patience, Antonio Skármeta was best known in Latin America for his masterful short stories, which won the prestigious Casa de las Américas Prize.
This Readers International collection first marked the return of Antonio Skármeta from exile and now marks the memory of 50 years since the coup that brought General Pinochet to power, toppling the elected government of Chile and bringing a stark choice of death or exile to so many Chileans.
These virtuoso stories of passion and politics, hope and disillusionment in the New World, range from the Conquistadors to the present day and from Santiago to New York and California.
Cordovez, Federico: - FEDERICO CORDOVEZ was born in Chile, holds Masters degrees in Literature from the University of Chile, and in Latin American Literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has also studied under Allen Ginsberg at the NAROPA Institute, and taught Spanish with Donald L. Schmidt at the University of Colorado at Denver. He is now President of Language Nexus, a translation company located in Golden, Colorado.
Schmidt, Donald: - DONALD L. SCHMIDT (1941-2009) enjoyed a long and prestigious career as Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature at the University of Colorado at Denver. His translations include short works by Antonio Skármeta, José Agustín and Augusto Salazar Bondy. He co-edited José Agustín: Onda and Beyond (1986) and published many articles on Spanish American narrative and drama.
Skármeta, Antonio: - ANTONIO SKÁRMETA was born in Antofagasta, Chile, in 1940, in the Croatian/Yugoslav immigrant community This and other immigrant groups in Chile appear in Fish, Taking the Plunge and others of his stories. He studied philosophy, literature, and theatre directing at the University of Chile (working with Victor Jara) and later at Columbia University in New York. In Chile up to the military coup of 1973 he held university posts in contemporary philosophy and literature, won the Casa de las Américas prize for his stories in 1969, ran writing workshops in the Santiago shantytowns, and was the cultural editor of three magazines: Ercilla (an epic poet of the 16th century), Ahora (Today), and La Quinta Rueda (The Fifth Wheel). He also translated Norman Mailer, William Golding, Herman Melville, Jack Kerouac and F. Scott Fitzgerald for Chilean readers. After 1973 he lived in Argentina, then Portugal, then settled in West Berlin where he completed his novel I Dreamt the Snow was Burning -- available from Readers International -- and also taught scriptwriting at the German Film and Television Academy and the University of Bonn. In 1980 he travelled to Nicaragua and wrote the screenplay for La Insurrecciόn, which was filmed by Peter Lilienthal. In 1985 his novel Burning Patience was published to international acclaim and was filmed from his own screenplay, but was also adapted independently as a film in Italy as Il Postino, which went on to win an Academy Award in 1994. In 1989 when General Pinochet lost the election, Antonio Skármeta returned to Chile and began hosting a hugely popular TV program on literature and the arts. From 2000 to 2003 he served as the Chilean ambassador in Germany. He later began teaching alternate semesters in Chile and in US universities. Among the many literary prizes won by Antonio Skármeta are the French Prix Médicis Étranger (2001), the Premio Iberoamericano Planeta-Casa de América de Narrativa (2011) and Chile's National Literature Prize (2014).
