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Contributor

Quim Monzó

Contributor

Quim Monzó

Quim Monzó has always alternated between writing narrative fiction and articles. He is a frequent contributor to the newspaper La Vanguardia. He published his first collection of short stories, Whew! He Said, in 1978; his later collections include The Why of It All (1993), Guadalajara (1996) and Three Christmases (2003). In 2004 he put together his shorter narrative fiction in Eighty-six Stories. Benzine (1983), a novel about the emptiness and nonsense of postmodern art, was published in 1983; and, in 1989 The Enormity of the Tragedy, which plays with the cliché of the character whose days are numbered. His collections of journalism include Zzzzzzzz . . . (1987), All is a Lie (2000) and The Subject of the Subject (2003), the reading of which offers an inimitable look at the past two decades. Monzó has translated Capote, J.D. Salinger, Bradbury, Hardy, Hemingway, Barth, Miller, and other writers in the English language. He has received, among many others, the National Prize of Literature, the Prudenci Bertrana Prize for Novel, and, on more than one occasion, the Crítica Serra d'Or Award. All of his work can be found through Quaderns Crema and has been translated into more than twenty languages. His most recent book to be translated into English is Gasoline, translated  by Mary Ann Newman and published by Open Letter Books. 

Articles by Quim Monzó

Landscape with Strikers
By Quim Monzó
On the sidewalks lie piles of uncollected garbage in enormous black bags, some of them split open.
Translated from Catalan by Mary Ann Newman
My Brother
By Quim Monzó
Only someone who’s undressed a dead person can know how hard it is.
Translated from Catalan by Mary Ann Newman
Immolation
By Quim Monzó
Husband and wife contemplate the silhouette of the tower. The woman feels particularly affectionate, and she hugs her husband.
Translated from Catalan by Mary Ann Newman
Mr. Beneset
By Quim Monzó
Mr. Beneset’s son arrives at the geriatric home and greets the girl at reception
Translated from Catalan by Lisa M. Dillman
Honesty
By Quim Monzó
The nurse walks into Room 93 pushing a cart carrying a tray with a glass of water, a jar of capsules, a thermometer, and a file folder rest.
Translated from Catalan by Mary Ann Newman
Thirty Lines
By Quim Monzó
The writer begins typing cautiously. He has to write a short story.
Translated from Catalan by Lisa M. Dillman
The Fork
By Quim Monzó
And then, while they’re still standing, taking off their jackets, one of the women accidentally knocks a fork—her own—with her sleeve, causing it to fall to the ground in silence
Translated from Catalan by Lisa M. Dillman
I Have Nothing to Wear
By Quim Monzó
The man faces the mirror. He has just shaved and taken a shower.
Translated from Catalan by Josep Miquel Sobrer