November 16, 2005 Source: Concordia University:
http://publicaffairs.concordia.ca/mediaroom/pressreleases/2005/11/005427.shtml Biographies of the authors Mercedes Abad, born in Barcelona in 1961, pursued studies in communications at the Univesidad Autónoma in her native city. Since the publication in 1986 of Ligeros libertinajes sabáticos, which won her the 8th La Sonrisa Vertical Prize thereby exposing her to the general public, Abad has published two books of short stories Felicidades conyugales and Soplando al viento. The appearance of her first novel in 2000 won her the adimiration of the critics as well as the public. She is the author of various radio and theatre screenplays such as Pretèrit Perfecte (1982), Se non è vero (1995) and Bunyols de Quaresma (1998). She has adapted Dangerous Liaisons (2001) by Laclos for the theatre and La Philosophie du Boudoir by Marquis de Sade for a La Fura dels Baus XXX show (2002). Abad is a regular collaborator in the Catalan edition of El País and has compiled articles in the Titúlate tú (2002) volume. Her latest work, Amigos y Fantasmas (2004), which brings together a series of short stories representing her different writing styles, has won the Mario Vargas Llosa Prize. ________________________________________ Gabriel Loidolt Gabriel Loidolt was born in 1953 in Eibiswald in the Austrian province of Styria. He studied electrical engineering in Munich and subsequently obtained a doctorate in German studies in Graz. From 1983 -1985, he was a lecturer at the National University of Ireland. He then spent several years writing for the film magazine BLIMP and for a number of cultural publications. While working as a novelist, he also wrote several books on the art of film, and worked as an advertising editor. Among his published works are: Der Leuchtturm, Levys Neue Beschwerde, and Hurensohn, which have all been translated into French. Hurensohn received excellent reviews and was made into a film, The Whore’s Son, by Michael Sturminger in 2004. The French translation of Loidolt’s latest novel Die Irische Geliebte will be released in 2006. Today, Loidolt works as a novelist in his native city of Graz. ________________________________________ Patrick McGuinness Patrick McGuinness was born in 1968 in Tunisia and was brought up in Belgium, Iran and England. In 1998, he won an Eric Gregory Award for poetry from the Society of Authors and in 2003 he won the Levinson Prize from the Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine. His first book of poems, The Canals of Mars (2004), was short-listed for the Roland Mathias Prize. His work has appeared in a variety of journals and magazines including the Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, PN Review, Poetry Review, Planet, New Welsh Review, Agenda 4, Poetry Wales, Leviathan and New Writing 10. He is a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books. Patrick McGuinness is Chair of the judges of the Oxford Weidenfeld Prize for Translation and a fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford, where he lectures in French. His main research interests include 19th and 20th century French literature, especially poetry and theatre, modern British poetry and comparative literature. Patrick McGuinness lives in Cardiff, Wales. Poetry: The Canals of Mars (Carcanet, 2004)
Translations: Stéphane Mallarmé: For Anatole’s Tomb (Carcanet/Routledge USA, 2003)
Academic Books: Maurice Maeterlinck and the Making of Modern Theatre (Oxford University Press, 2000); Symbolism, Decadence and the ‘fin de siècle’: French and European Perspectives (University of Exeter Press, 2000)
Editions and anthologies: Anthologie de la poésie symboliste et décadente (Paris: Les Belles lettres, 2001) ; T.E Hulme: Selected Writings (Carcanet, 1998; 2004; Routledge USA, 2004) ;Marcel Schwob, Oeuvres (Les Belles lettres, 2003)
J-K Huysmans, Against Nature (Penguin Classics, 2003) ________________________________________ Glenn Patterson Glenn Patterson was born in Belfast in 1961 and studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury. He returned to Northern Ireland in 1988 and was Writer in the Community for Lisburn and Craigavon under a scheme administered by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. He is the author of five novels. The first, Burning Your Own (1988), set in Northern Ireland in 1969, won a Betty Trask Award and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Fat Lad (1992), was short-listed for the Guinness Peat Aviation Book Award and explores the effects of the political situation in Northern Ireland through the story of a young man returning to his homeland after an absence of ten years. Black Night at Big Thunder Mountain (1995) narrates the experiences of three people brought together on the Euro-Disney construction site. The International (1999), is set in a Belfast hotel in 1967, and tells the story of a day in the life of Danny, an 18-year-old barman; Number 5 (2003), traces the lives of the various occupants of a Belfast house over a 45-year period. His most recent novel, That Which Was (2004), is also set in Belfast and explores the interaction between memory, history and society. Glenn Patterson has been Writer in Residence at the Universities of East Anglia, Cork and Queen’s University, Belfast, and was one of two writers (with poet Bernardine Evaristo) selected by the British Council and the Arts Council to attend the Literaturexpress Europa 2000 international literature tour. ______________________________________________________________ David Homel A native of Chicago, David Homel came to Quebec in the late 1960s. He has taught creative writing in the English Department and now teaches in the Études Françaises Department at Concordia University. In 1995, Homel won the Governor General’s Literary Award, for his work Why must a Black Writer Write about Sex? In 2003, he won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction for his novel The Speaking Cure, set in contemporary Yugoslavia. Homel and collaborator Fred A. Reed won the Translation Prize, sponsored by Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, for The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle, from Monique Proulx’s Le coeur est un muscle involontaire. Homel is a finalist for the 2005 Governor General’s Literary Awards. 30
Source: Chris Mota,
Senior Public Relations Officer
Concordia University
tel: (514) 848-2424 ext. 4884
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e-mail: mota@alcor.concordia.ca
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