This story has been updated.
What are the odds that two Cornell professors, who happen to be spouses, are longlisted for a prestigious literary award at the same time? , professor of Spanish literature, and MA '14, PhD '17, visiting lecturer, were both longlisted for the Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez Award for the Short Story. Colanzi has now been chosen as one of five finalists. The winner will be announced November 1.
Colanzi鈥檚 short story collection 鈥淣uestro mundo muerto,鈥 鈥淥ur dead World鈥, and Paz-Sold谩n鈥檚 鈥淟as visiones,鈥 鈥淭he visions鈥, are among 13 authors shortlisted for the prize, named in honor of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez. The award offers $100,000 to the best book of short stories written in Spanish.
鈥淭he short story is a very important genre in Latin America,鈥 Colanzi said. 鈥淥ur most important 20th-century writer, Jorge Luis Borges, never wrote a novel. Garc铆a M谩rquez is better known for 鈥淥ne Hundred Years of Solitude,鈥 but he has wonderful and strange short stories that are classics in the genre and should be read as much as his novels.鈥
Colanzi鈥檚 collection of eight stories has been described as sci-fi meets magical realism featuring characters 鈥渢hat are besieged by forces that are much greater than them.鈥
鈥淭he reader should decide whether these forces come from the outside or from the inside, whether they are real or imaginary, because the principle of reality is questioned and blurred in the stories,鈥 Colanzi said. 鈥淭he main characters are undergoing the dissolution of body and mind, and the trigger can be paranoia, mystical experiences, psychosis or fear of the unknown.鈥
Paz-Sold谩n鈥檚 collection deals with an island that has been colonized by an empire, and tackles the many ways people who are being subjugated by a big power try to endure, Paz-Sold谩n said.
鈥淭he stories that make up the book are a blend of science fiction, horror and fantasy,鈥 Paz-Sold谩n said. 鈥淭hey are set in the future, which allows me to talk more freely about the present.鈥
鈥淚 drew on the long and traumatic story of colonial oppression in Bolivia, particularly what took place in Potos铆 and the exploitation of its silver mines.鈥
The literary award is hailed as a benchmark in the publishing world and Spanish literature.
鈥淟atin Americans have always excelled at the short-story,鈥 Paz-Sold谩n said. 鈥淎part from Garc铆a M谩rquez, just think about Borges, Cort谩zar, Rulfo, etc. This is an award that focuses on the short story and brings visibility to the work that is being done today in this marvelous genre.鈥
Paz-Sold谩n is the winner of the Bolivian National Book Award and the Juan Rulfo Short Story Award. He is the author of nine novels and three books of short stories.
Colanzi is the author of two books of short stories. She has received the Premio Aura Estrada de Literatura. Her work has appeared in Granta, the Michigan Quarterly Review, The White Review and REVIEW.
Earlier Colanzi and Paz-Sold谩n, both colleagues and partners, expressed their wish for the other to be included among the finalists.
鈥淚 just hope she wins it,鈥 Paz-Sold谩n said.
鈥淚t is definitely a strange thing to be competing with my partner and colleague. Of course I鈥檒l be happy if he wins,鈥 Colanzi said.
Yvette Lisa Ndlovu is a communications assistant for the 麻豆视频 & 麻豆视频.
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