Kalpa Imperial

Emperors, empresses, storytellers, thievesand the Natural History of Ferrets.

In eleven chapters, Kalpa Imperial's multiple storytellers relate the story of a fabled nameless empire which has risen and fallen innumerable times.

When Trafalgar's in town his friends know that even though the coffee might be terrible, the stories will be great.

An enchanting incantatory novel of the women whose lives pass through a nineteenth century boarding house. Moving, subtle, and dreamlike.

Moving beyond the "main dishes" of traditional literary works, Side Dishes offers a provocative and delicious new understanding of Latin American women's authorship and activism. The book illuminates a wealth of creative and intellectual work by Latin American women—editors, directors, cartoonists, academics, performance artists, and comedians—and explores them in light of their treatment of women's sexuality. Side Dishes considers feminist pornography and literary representations of masturbation, bisexuality, lesbianism, and sexual fantasies; the treatment of lust in stand-up comedy and science fiction; critical issues in leading feminist journals; and portrayals of sexuality in four contemporary Latin American films. Melissa A. Fitch concludes with a look at the rise of women's and gender studies programs in Latin America.

Jaguars' Tomb is a novel in three parts. Part one, "Hidden Variables" by María Celina Igarzábal, is narrated by Bruno Seguer. Seguer in turn is the author of the second part, "Telling from Zero" ("Contar desde zero") of which Evelynne Harrington, author of the third, is a central character. Harrington, finally, is the author of "Uncertainty" ("La incertidumbre") whose protagonist is the dying Igarzábal. Each of the three parts revolves around the octagonal room that is in turn the jaguars' tomb, the central space of the torture center, and the heart of an abandoned house that hides an adulterous affair. Among Angélica Gorodischer's many novels, Jaguars' Tomb most directly addresses the abductions and disappearances that occurred under the Argentine military dictatorship of 1976-83. This is the third of Gorodischer's novels translated into English. The first, Kalpa Imperial--translated by Ursula Le Guin--was selected for the New York Times summer reading list in 2003.

Anthologies, awards, journals, and works in translation have sprung up to reflect science fiction's increasingly international scope. Yet scholars and students alike face a problem. Where does one begin to explore global SF in the absence of an established canon? Lingua Cosmica opens the door to some of the creators in the vanguard of international science fiction. Eleven experts offer innovative English-language scholarship on figures ranging from Cuban pioneer Daína Chaviano to Nigerian filmmaker Olatunde Osunsanmi to the Hugo Award-winning Chinese writer Liu Cixin. These essays invite readers to ponder the themes, formal elements, and unique cultural characteristics within the works of these irreplaceable—if too-little-known—artists. Dale Knickerbocker includes fantasists and genre-benders pushing SF along new evolutionary paths even as they draw on the traditions of their own literary cultures. Includes essays on Daína Chaviano (Cuba), Jacek Dukaj (Poland), Jean-Claude Dunyac (France), Andreas Eschbach (Germany), Angélica Gorodischer (Argentina), Sakyo Komatsu (Japan), Liu Cixin (China), Laurent McAllister (Yves Meynard and Jean-Louis Trudel, Francophone Canada), Olatunde Osunsanmi (Nigeria), Johanna Sinisalo (Finland), and Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (Russia). Contributors: Alexis Brooks de Vita, Pawel Frelik, Yvonne Howell, Yolanda Molina-Gavilán, Vibeke Rützou Petersen, Amy J. Ransom, Hanna-Riikka Roine, Hanna Samola, Mingwei Song, Tatsumi Takayuki, Juan Carlos Toledano Redondo, and Natacha Vas-Deyres.

Many readers are unaware of the vast universe of Latin American science fiction, which has its roots in the 18th century and has flourished to the present day. Because science fiction is part of Latin American popular culture, it reflects cultural and social concerns and comments on contemporary society. While there is a growing body of criticism on Latin American science fiction, most studies treat only a single author or work. This reference offers a broad overview of Latin American science fiction. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on 70 Latin American science fiction writers. While some of these are canonical figures, others have been largely neglected. Since much of science fiction has been written by women, many women writers are profiled. Each entry is prepared by an expert contributor and includes a short biography, a discussion of the writer's works, and primary and secondary bibliographies. The volume closes with a general bibliography of anthologies and criticism.