Quim Monzó - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Quim Monzó (ˈkim munˈso) (born 24 March 1952 in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

), is a contemporary Catalan

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

writer of novels, short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

and discursive prose, mostly in Catalan

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

. In the early 1970s, Monzó reported from Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

and East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

for the Barcelona newspaper Tele/eXprés. He lives in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

and publishes regularly in La Vanguardia
La Vanguardia
La Vanguardia is Catalonia's leading daily newspaper as well as the fourth best-selling in Spain. It has its headquarters in Barcelona, Catalonia's largest city....

.

His fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

is characterized by an awareness of pop culture and irony

Irony

Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...

. His other prose

Prose

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...

maintains this humor. One collection of his essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

s, Catorze ciutats comptant-hi Brooklyn, is notable for its account of New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

in the days immediately following September 11. In collaboration with Cuca Canals, he wrote the dialogue for Bigas Luna

Bigas Luna

Juan José Bigas Luna is a Spanish film director. He began his professional career in the design world, creating the Estudio Gris with Carlos Riart in 1969. In his earlier exhibitions, at the beginning of the sixties, he showed a great interest in conceptual art and the emerging visual technologies...

's Jamón, jamón
Jamón, jamón
Jamón, jamón is a 1992 Spanish comedy/drama film directed by Bigas Luna and starring Javier Bardem, Jordi Mollà and Penélope Cruz in her debut film. It centres around a young woman named Silvia played by Cruz. According to LoveFilm, the film is bursting with sexual energy and twisted romantic...

. He has also written El tango de Don Joan, with Jérôme Savary

Jérôme Savary

Jérôme Savary is a French theater director and actor. His work has democratized and widened the appeal of musical theater in France, drawing together and blending such genres as opera, operetta, and musical comedy.- Biography :...

.

In 2007 he wrote and read the opening speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Frankfurt Book Fair

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. As to the number of visitors, the Turin Book Fair attracts about as many visitors, viz. some 300,000....

, the year in which Catalan culture was the guest. Monzó designed an acclaimed lecture written as if it was a short story. It differed completely from traditional speeches. Of December 2009 to April 2010 it took place in the Arts Santa Mònica Gallery in Barcelona a great retrospective exhibition on his life and his work, called Monzó.

Books in English

O'Clock, 1986. New York: Ballantine Books. Translated by Mary Ann Newman. ISBN 978-0345316684 ISBN 0345316681
The enormity of the tragedy, 2007. London: Peter Owen Publishers. Translated by Peter Bush. ISBN 978-0720612998 ISBN 0720612993
Gasoline, 2010. New York & Rochester: Open Letter. Translated by Mary Ann Newman. ISBN 978-1-934824-18-4 ISBN 1-934824-18-6
Guadalajara, 2011, New York & Rochester: Open Letter. Translated by Peter Bush. ISBN 978-1934824-19-1 ISBN 1-934824-19-4

Fiction

L'udol del griso al caire de les clavegueres, 1976. Winner of the Premi Prudenci Bertrana (1976).
Self Service, 1977. In collaboration with Biel Mesquida.
Uf, va dir ell, 1978.
Olivetti, Moulinex, Chaffoteaux et Maury, 1980. Winner of the Premi de la Crítica Serra d'Or in 1981.
Benzina, 1983.
L'illa de Maians, 1985. Awarded the Premi de la Crítica Serra d'Or, 1986.
La magnitud de la tragèdia, 1989. Winner of the Premi de Novel·la El Temps, 1989.

El perquè de tot plegat, 1993. Awarded the Premi Ciutat de Barcelona in 1993, and the Premi de la Crítica Serra d'Or in 1994.
Guadalajara, 1996. Awarded the Premi de la Crítica Serra d'Or, 1997.
Vuitanta-sis contes (comprising Uf, va dir ell, Olivetti, Moulinex, Chaffoteaux et Maury, L'illa de Maians, El perquè de tot plegat and Guadalajara), 1999. Awarded the Premi Nacional de Literatura and Premi Lletra d'Or, both in 2000.
El millor dels mons, 2001.
Mil cretins, 2007. Awarded the Premi Maria Àngels Anglada, 2008.

Collected articles and essays

El dia del senyor, 1984.
Zzzzzzzz, 1987.
La maleta turca, 1990.
Hotel Intercontinental, 1991.
No plantaré cap arbre, 1994.
Del tot indefens davant dels hostils imperis alienígenes, 1998.
Tot és mentida, 2000.
El tema del tema, 2003.
Catorze ciutats comptant-hi Brooklyn, 2004.
Esplendor i glòria de la Internacional Papanates, 2010.

Miscellany

He has also translated a large number of authors, including Truman Capote

Truman Capote

Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...

, J.D. Salinger, Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...

, Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...

, Harvey Fierstein

Harvey Fierstein

Harvey Forbes Fierstein is a U.S. actor and playwright, noted for the early distinction of winning Tony Awards for both writing and originating the lead role in his long-running play Torch Song Trilogy, about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family, as well as writing the...

, Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...

, John Barth

John Barth

John Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work.-Life:...

, Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, fighter pilot and screenwriter.Born in Wales to Norwegian parents, he served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence agent, rising to the rank of Wing Commander...

, Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...

, Javier Tomeo, Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller

Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...

, and Eric Bogosian

Eric Bogosian

Eric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist, and novelist of Armenian descent.-Personal life:Bogosian, an Armenian-American, was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Edwina, a hairdresser and instructor, and Henry Bogosian, an accountant. After graduating from Oberlin College,...

.

Monzó has been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical tics and at least one vocal tic; these tics characteristically wax and wane...

Books about Monzó

Margarida Casacuberta and Marina Gustà (ed.): De Rusiñol a Monzó: humor i literatura. Barcelona: Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, 1996, ISBN 84-7826-695-X
Christian Camps and Jordi Gàlvez (ed.): Quim Monzó. Montpellier: Université Paul Valéry, 1998. ISBN 978-2-84269-186-8 LO
Antoni Mestres: Humor i persuasió: l’obra periodística de Quim Monzó. Alicante: Universitat d'Alacant, 2006. ISBN 84-611-1107-9
Julià Guillamon
Julià Guillamon
Julià Guillamon is a Spanish-Catalan writer and literary critic. He was born in Barcelona in 1962.Guillamon studied Catalan philology at the University of Barcelona. Since 1994, he has been publishing weekly reviews in the newspaper La Vanguardia. His essays have dealt with the image of Barcelona...

(ed.): Monzó. Com triomfar a la vida. Barcelona: Galàxia Gutenberg / Cercle de Lectors, 2009, ISBN 978-84-8109-847-1. This is a book catalog published on the occasion of the exhibition devoted to the life and work of author (Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, between December 2009 and April 2010).

External links

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