Virgil Suárez
Encyclopedia
Virgil Suárez is a Cuban American
poet and novelist. He is a professor of English at Florida State University
. He is one of the leading writers in the Cuban American community, known for such novels as Latin Jazz and Going Under.
, of living as a gypsy.
Suárez's first novel, Latin Jazz was described by Newsday
as "a striking debut. A well crafted and sensitive novel. An engrossing, honest book by a writer who cares deeply about preserving ties within the family unit and, by extension, within the Hispanic community and America. Suarez is marvelous." His novel The Cutter was described by Publishers Weekly
as a "powerful novel about one individual's response to the abuses and arbitrariness of totalitarianism
[that] shows us how ordinary people can be driven to take extraordinary risks." His collection of stories, Welcome to the Oasis, was described by Kirkus Reviews
as "A tightly controlled but affecting exploration of fundamental tensions" in the Cuban exile/Marielita
community. New York Public Library named the collection as one of the top books for the Teen Age.
Other praise has come from The New York Times
: "Mr. Suarez writes in a cold, unornamental, Hemingwayesque
style, always straight forward and cinematic" and The Village Voice
"Like Oscar Hijuelos
, Suarez has taken pains with his craft, orchestrating points of view and narrative time. His forte is directness of description and action."
Shorter pieces have been published in the following journals: Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review, Clackamas Literary Review, TriQuarterly, Colorado Review, The Southern Review, The Massachusetts Review, American Literary Review, The American Voice, The Caribbean Review, The North American Review, Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, Puerto del Sol, Northwest Review, Mid-American Review, Blue Mesa Review, Crazy Horse, Cimarron, Tampa Review, and in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, England, France, India, Israel, Spain, Venezuela, and New Zealand.
Suárez has also reviewed books for The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Tallahassee Democrat.
Cuban American
A Cuban American is a United States citizen who traces his or her "national origin" to Cuba. Cuban Americans are also considered native born Americans with Cuban parents or Cuban-born persons who were raised and educated in US...
poet and novelist. He is a professor of English at Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
. He is one of the leading writers in the Cuban American community, known for such novels as Latin Jazz and Going Under.
Early life
- spent four years in SpainSpainSpain , 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...
, 1970-1974 - moved to USA in 1974
- went to high school in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
- BA from California State University, Long BeachCalifornia State University, Long BeachCalifornia State University, Long Beach is the second largest campus of the California State University system and the third largest university in the state of California by enrollment...
- MFA, Louisiana State UniversityLouisiana State UniversityLouisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
(1987), under Vance BourjailyVance BourjailyVance Bourjaily was an American writer, novelist, playwright, journalist, and essayist.-Life:Bourjaily was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Monte Ferris Bourjaily, a Lebanese immigrant who was a journalist and later became editor of the United Features Syndicate, and Barbara Webb, an American-born... - studied under Sir Angus Wilson and Robert Houston for a year at the University of Arizona
Literary work
Suárez has stated that he no longer writes novels and finds writing poetry better for him. He also states that Spared Angola is the work in which he found his voice. He continues to explore the experience of exileExile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
, of living as a gypsy.
Suárez's first novel, Latin Jazz was described by Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
as "a striking debut. A well crafted and sensitive novel. An engrossing, honest book by a writer who cares deeply about preserving ties within the family unit and, by extension, within the Hispanic community and America. Suarez is marvelous." His novel The Cutter was described by Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
as a "powerful novel about one individual's response to the abuses and arbitrariness of totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
[that] shows us how ordinary people can be driven to take extraordinary risks." His collection of stories, Welcome to the Oasis, was described by Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
as "A tightly controlled but affecting exploration of fundamental tensions" in the Cuban exile/Marielita
Mariel boatlift
The Mariel boatlift was a mass emigration of Cubans who departed from Cuba's Mariel Harbor for the United States between April 15 and October 31, 1980....
community. New York Public Library named the collection as one of the top books for the Teen Age.
Other praise has come from The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
: "Mr. Suarez writes in a cold, unornamental, Hemingwayesque
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...
style, always straight forward and cinematic" and The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
"Like Oscar Hijuelos
Oscar Hijuelos
Oscar Jerome Hijuelos is an American novelist. He is the first Hispanic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.- Early life and career :...
, Suarez has taken pains with his craft, orchestrating points of view and narrative time. His forte is directness of description and action."
Published works
- 90 Miles (Selected & New Poems), U of Pittsburgh P, 2005.
- Landscapes & Dreams (poems), Louisiana Literature P, 2003.
- Vespers: Spirituality in America (anthology), U of Iowa P, 2003.
- Guide to the Blue Tongue (poems), U of Illinois, 2002.
- Banyan (poems), Louisiana State U P, 2001.
- Palm Crows (poems), U of Arizona P, 2001.
- American Diaspora (anthology), U of Iowa P, 2001.
- The Cutter (reprint, novel), Ballatine/Available, 1991 and Arte Público PressArte Público PressArte Público Press, in Houston, Texas, is the largest US publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by US Hispanic authors, part of the University of Houston. It publishes approximately 30 titles per year....
, 1999. - In the Republic of Longing (poems), Bilingual Review PressBilingual Review PressBilingual Review Press is an American publishing house specialising in the publication of scholarly and literary works by Hispanic and Latino American authors and researchers...
/Arizona State U, 2000. - You Come Singing (poems), Tia Chucha/Northwestern UP, 1998.
- Garabato Poems (poems), Wings, 1998.
- Spared Angola (poems, essays, stories), Arte Publico PressArte Público PressArte Público Press, in Houston, Texas, is the largest US publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by US Hispanic authors, part of the University of Houston. It publishes approximately 30 titles per year....
, 1997. - Going Under (novel), Arte Público PressArte Público PressArte Público Press, in Houston, Texas, is the largest US publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by US Hispanic authors, part of the University of Houston. It publishes approximately 30 titles per year....
, 1996. - Havana Thursdays (novel), Arte Público PressArte Público PressArte Público Press, in Houston, Texas, is the largest US publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by US Hispanic authors, part of the University of Houston. It publishes approximately 30 titles per year....
, 1995. - Iguana Dreams (anthology), Harper Collins, 1993.
- Welcome to the Oasis (stories) Arte Público PressArte Público PressArte Público Press, in Houston, Texas, is the largest US publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by US Hispanic authors, part of the University of Houston. It publishes approximately 30 titles per year....
, 1992. - Latin Jazz (novel) William Morrow, 1989.
Shorter pieces have been published in the following journals: Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review, Clackamas Literary Review, TriQuarterly, Colorado Review, The Southern Review, The Massachusetts Review, American Literary Review, The American Voice, The Caribbean Review, The North American Review, Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing, Puerto del Sol, Northwest Review, Mid-American Review, Blue Mesa Review, Crazy Horse, Cimarron, Tampa Review, and in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, England, France, India, Israel, Spain, Venezuela, and New Zealand.
Suárez has also reviewed books for The Los Angeles Times, The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Tallahassee Democrat.
Awards
- Best American Poetry, 2004.
- G. MacCarthur Poetry Prize, 2002.
- The Daily News/The Caribbean Writer/University of the Virgin IslandsUniversity of the Virgin IslandsThe University of the Virgin Islands is a public university located in the United States Virgin Islands.-Academics:The university has five academic divisions: Business, Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, Nursing, and Science and Mathematics. UVI offers several graduate degree programs and...
Poetry Prize, 2002. - National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, 2001.
- The Book Expo America/Latino Literature Hall of Fame Poetry Prize for Best Book of Poetry (for Banyan), 2001.
- Winner of a Florida State Individual Artist Grant, 1998.
- Winner of New York Public LibraryNew York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
's Best Book for the Teenager, 1993. - Nominated for five Pushcart PrizePushcart PrizeThe Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
s.
See also
Critical studies in English
as of March 2008:- "Virgilio Suárez (1962-)." By: Roberto G. FernándezRoberto G. FernándezRoberto G. Fernández is a Cuban American novelist and short story writer. He is noted for his grotesque satires of the Cuban American community, especially in his English-language novels, Raining Backwards and Holy Radishes! He is currently the Dorothy Lois Breen Hoffman Professor of Modern...
. IN: West-Durán, Herrera-Sobek and Salgado, Latino and Latina Writers, I: Introductory Essays, Chicano and Chicana Authors; II: Cuban and Cuban American Authors, Dominican and Other Authors, Puerto Rican Authors. New York: Scribner's; 2004. pp. 747–61 - "Dos novelas cubanoamericanas: Dos inserciones del imaginario Cuba dentro de la realidad estadounidense." By: Humberto López Cruz, Torre de Papel, 2003 Summer-Fall; 13 (2-3): 15-23.
- "Virgil Suárez and Finnegans WakeFinnegans WakeFinnegans Wake is a novel by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's...
(FW)." By: Tatsuo Hamada, Abiko Annual with James Joyce Finnegans Wake Studies, 2001; 21: 179-82. - "Virgil Suárez's The Cutter and Going Under: Beat on the Drum or Beaten by the Humdrum?" By: William O. Deaver, Jr. Anales Literarios: Narradores, 2001; 3 (3): 110-17.
- "Going Under y Raining BackwardsRoberto G. FernándezRoberto G. Fernández is a Cuban American novelist and short story writer. He is noted for his grotesque satires of the Cuban American community, especially in his English-language novels, Raining Backwards and Holy Radishes! He is currently the Dorothy Lois Breen Hoffman Professor of Modern...
: Una lectura de enfrentamiento en el proceso de asimiliación dentro de la sociedad estadounidense." By: Humberto López Cruz, SECOLAS Annals: Journal of the Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies, 1999 Nov; 31: 85-91. - "Going Under and Spared Angola: Memories from a Cuban-American Childhood: A Contrapunteo on Cultural Identity." By: Leira Annette Manso, Bilingual Review/La Revista Bilingüe, 1999 Sept-Dec; 24 (3): 295-98.
- "Humor e hipérbole en Raining BackwardsRoberto G. FernándezRoberto G. Fernández is a Cuban American novelist and short story writer. He is noted for his grotesque satires of the Cuban American community, especially in his English-language novels, Raining Backwards and Holy Radishes! He is currently the Dorothy Lois Breen Hoffman Professor of Modern...
y Going Under." By: Humberto López Cruz, Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana, 1999 Autumn; 14: 163-69. - "The Prodigal Son in the Structure of Raining BackwardsRoberto G. FernándezRoberto G. Fernández is a Cuban American novelist and short story writer. He is noted for his grotesque satires of the Cuban American community, especially in his English-language novels, Raining Backwards and Holy Radishes! He is currently the Dorothy Lois Breen Hoffman Professor of Modern...
, Crazy Love, and Latin Jazz." By: William O. Deaver, Jr.; Americas Review: A Review of Hispanic Literature and Art of the USA, 1996 Fall-Winter; 24 (3-4): 179-90.
Interviews
- "The Work We Leave Behind: An Interview with Virgil Suárez." By: William T. Vandegrift, Jr.; Quarterly West, 2004 Summer; 58: 68-79.
- "Electric Dialogue: An E-mail Conversation with Virgil Suárez." By: James Mayo, Bilingual Review/La Revista Bilingüe, 2001 Jan-2002 Apr; 26 (1): 56-63.
External links
- Ryan G. Van Cleave's Interview of Virgil Suárez (accessed March 2008)
- Bio at Notre Dame's website (accessed March 2008)
- Bio at Arte Público Press (same as Notre Dame bio; accessed March 2008)