Sergio Pitol

Sergio Pitol Deméneghi (born 18 March 1933 in Puebla) is a prominent Mexican writer, translator and diplomat. In 2005 he received the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Spanish-speaking world.

Early life

Pitol spent his childhood in Ingenio de Potrero, a provincial town in the Mexican state of Veracruz. His mother died when he was four years old and soon after Pitol contracted malaria leaving him bedridden until about the age of 12. He was raised by his grandmother. As a teenager, Pitol moved to Córdoba, Veracruz.

Education and Diplomacy Work

In 1950, Pitol moved to Mexico City to study literature at the Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM). In 1960, he became a member of the Mexican Foreign Service and served over a number of years as cultural attaché in Rome, Belgrade, Warsaw, Paris, Beijing, Moscow, Prague, Budapest and Barcelona. In the 1980s he served as Mexico’s ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Since 1993 he has lived in Xalapa, capital of the Mexican state of Veracruz.

Writing career

Pitol’s publications as translator include literary works by such authors as Jerzy Andrzejewski, Jane Austen, Giorgio Bassani, Kazimierz Brandys, Anton Chekhov, Joseph Conrad, Witold Gombrowicz, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. He also served as a professor at the UNAM, at the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, and at the University of Bristol, England.

Awards

In 2005, Pitol received the Cervantes Prize. Other major awards include the Premio Juan Rulfo (1999), Premio Herralde de Novela (1984), and the Premio Xavier Villaurrutia (1981).

Selection of Works by Sergio Pitol

Novels

• El tañido de una flauta (Era, México, 1972)
• Juebos florales (Siglo XXI, 1982)
• El desfile del amor (Anagrama, Barcelona 1984)
• Domar a la divina garza (Anagrama, Barcelona, 1988)
• La vida conjugal (Era, México; Anagrama, Barcelona, 1991)

Essay-Memoirs

• El arte de la fuga (Era, México, 1996 (The Art of Flight, Trans. George Henson; Deep Vellum Publishing, 2015)
• El viaje (Era, México, 2000 (The Journey, Trans. George Henson; Deep Vellum Publishing, 2015)
• El mago de Viena (Pre-Textos, Valencia, 2005)

Short Story Collections

• Tiempo cercado (Editorial Estaciones, México, 1959)
• Infierno de todos (Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, 1964)
• Los climas (Joaquín Mortiz, México, 1966)
• No hay tal lugar (Era, México, 1967)
• Del encuentro nupcial (Tusquets, Barcelona, 1970)
• Nocturno de Bujara (Siglo XXI, México, 1981)
• Vals de Mefisto (Anagrama, Barcelona, 1984)
• El relato veneciano de Billie Upward (Monte Ávila Editores, Caracas, 1992)
• Todos los cuentos (Alfaguara, México, 1998)
• El oscuro hermano gemelo y otros relatos (Norma, Bogotá, 2004)
• Los mejores cuentos, presentación de Enrique Vila-Matas (Anagrama, Barcelona, 2005)

Further reading

• José Balza, Victoria de Stefano, Anamari Gomis, et alii. Sergio Pitol, los territorios del viajero. México, ERA, 2000.
• Karim Benmiloud. Sergio Pitol ou le carnaval des vanités. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 2012.
• Karim Benmiloud, Raphaël Estève (dir.). El planeta Pitol. Bordeaux, Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2012.
• José Bru (comp.). Acercamientos a Sergio Pitol. Guadalajara, Universidad de Guadalajara, 1999.
• Maricruz Castro Ricalde. Ficcion, narracion y polifonia : el universo narrativo de Sergio Pitol.
• Laura Cazares Hernández. El caldero fáustico : la narrativa de Sergio Pitol. México, UAM, 2000.
• Texto critico n° 21, Xalapa, Universidad Veracruzana, abr.-jun. 1981.
• Pedro M. Domene. Sergio Pitol: el sueño de lo real. Batarro (revista literaria) n° 38-39-40, 2002.
• Luz Fernandez de Alba. Del tañido al arte de la fuga. Una lectura critica de Sergio Pitol. México, UNAM, 1998.
• Teresa Garcia Diaz. Del Tajin a Venecia: un regreso a ninguna parte. Xalapa, Universidad Veracruzana, 2002.
• Teresa Garcia Diaz (coord.). Victorio Ferri se hizo mago en Viena (sobre Sergio Pitol). Xalapa, Universidad Veracruzana, 2007.
• Alfonso Montelongo. Vientos troqueles : la narrativa de Sergio Pitol. Xalapa, Universidad Veracruzana, 1998.
• Renato Prada Oropeza. La narrativa de Sergio Pitol : los cuentos. Xalapa, Universidad Veracruzana, 1996.
• Eduardo Serrato (comp.). Tiempo cerrado, tiempo abierto. Sergio Pitol ante la critica. México, ERA - UNAM, 1994.
• Hugo Valdés Manriquez. El laberinto cuentistico de Sergio Pitol. Monterrey, Gobierno del Estado de Nuevo Leon, 1998.

External links

• CBC: Mexico's Sergio Pitol wins Cervantes lit prize
• (Spanish) BBC Mundo: Cervantes para Sergio Pitol
• (Spanish) Academia Mexicana de la Lengua