Carmen Boullosa
(she/her)
Carmen Boullosa (Mexico City, 1954) is the author of nineteen novels (The Book of Eve, and Texas: The Great Theft translated by Samantha Schnee, Before, translated by Peter Bush), collections of poetry (Hatchet, translated by Lawrence Schimmel), plays and essays.
She has collaborated with visual artists and has done her own artist books since the late seventies. Some of her work has been exhibited at the Museo de Arte Moderno, the Carrillo Gil, and the MUNAL in Mexico, and the Sala Ruiz Picasso at Madrid, among others.
She was a Guggenheim, a DAAD, and a Cullman Fellow, and the recipient of literary prizes in Mexico (the Xavier Villaurrutia, Ibargüengoitia, José Emilio Pacheco, Inés Arredondo), the Anna Seghers and the LiBeratur in Germany, and in Spain the Café Gijón, Rosalía de Castro and Casa de América de Poesía Americana. The show “Nueva York” on CUNY-TVhas won her seven NY-EMMYs. She has been visiting professor at Georgetown, Columbia, NYU, SDSU and Clermont Ferrand, was a faculty member at City College CUNY, and is a Distinguished Lecturer at Macaulay Honors College, CUNY. The New York Public Library houses her archive.
Social
Contact
Website
www.carmenboullosaescritora.com
Education
- Lengua y Literatura Hispanoamericana, Universidad Iberamericana/UNAM
Publications
POEMS:
My Cage Is the Size of the World, Selected Poetry of Carmen Boullosa, 1988-2011,
translated by Catherine Hammond), will appear at Coffee House Press, in 2025.
Lealtad alterado (poemas e imágenes), con Magali Lara, UNAM y UANL, México, 2022.
Hatchet, translated by Lawrence Schimel, The Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation,
White Pine Pres, 2020.
La aguja en el pajar, Visor, Madrid, 2019. Mexican edition, 2024.
Alquimia de los planetas / Alchemy of the Planets. Artist Book- images Philip Hughes
and Amy Petra Woodward, translation, Psiche Hughes, The Old Press, U.K,
2018.
La impropia, Taller Martín Pescador, Michoacán México, 2017.
Hamartia, Editorial Hiperión-UANL, Madrid/Nuevo León, Monterrey México, 2015.
La patria insomne, Editorial Hiperión, Madrid, 2012.
Allucinata e Selvaggia, Poesia scelte 1989-2004. A cura di Marta Canfield. Ed.
Lietocolle, Florence, Italy, 2008.
Salto de mantarraya (y otros dos), Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 2004.
La bebida, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 2002.
Salto de mantarraya, illustr. Phillip Huguhes, trans. Psiche Hughes, The Old School
Press, England, 2002.
Agua, with a Juan Soriano drawing, Taller Martín Pescador, México, 2000.
Jardín Elíseo, Elysian Garden, trad. Psiche Hugues, litografías de Phillip Hughes,
Monterrey, México, 1999.
La Delirios, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico City, 1998.
Niebla, Taller Martín Pescador, México, 1997.
Envenenada: antología personal (poesía), Fondo Editorial Pequeña Venecia,
Venezuela,1993.
Soledumbre, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México, 1992.
La salvaja, FCE, México, 1989.
La salvaja, Taller Martín Pescador, México, 1988.
Abierta, Delegación Venustiano Carranza, México, 1983.
Lealtad, illust. Magali Lara, Taller Martín Pescador, México, 1981.
Ingobernable, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1979.
El hilo olvida, La Máquina de Escribir, México, 1979.
NOVELS:
Her novels are being collected at the Biblioteca Carmen Boullosa, by Penguin Random House, as follows:
Biblioteca Boullosa, Infancia e invención: Novelas reunidas, I: Antes, Mejor desaparece, Así pensó el niño, Treinta años, La milagrosa, La novela perfecta, y Texas, la gran ladronería, April, 2018.
Biblioteca Boullosa, El Mundo. Novelas reunidas II: Duerme, Son vacas, somos puercos, El libro deAna and La virgen y el violín. Penguin Random House, Mexico City, September, 2018.
Novels:
El libro de Eva, Ediciones Siruela, Madrid, 2021. Editorial Alfaguara-Random House, México, 2021. English translation: The Book of Eve, translated by
Samantha Schnee, Deep Vellum, Spring 2023.
El libro de Ana, Ediciones Siruela, Madrid, 2016. Editorial Alfaguara-Random House, México, 2016. English translation: The Book of Anna, translated by
Samantha Schnee, Coffee House Press, Spring 2020.
Texas, Editorial Alfaguara, México. English translation: TEXAS, translated by Samantha Schnee, DeepVellum, 2014.
Las paredes hablan, Ediciones Siruela, Madrid, Autumn, 2010.
El complot de los románticos, Ediciones Siruela, Madrid, 2009.
La virgen y el violín, Ediciones Siruela, Madrid, 2008.
El velázquez de París, Ediciones Siruela, Madrid, 2007.
La novela perfecta, Editorial Alfaguara, México, 2006.
La otra mano de Lepanto, Ediciones Siruela, Madrid, 2005. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 2005. A Outra Mâo de Lepanto, translated to the Portuguese by Paulo César Thomaz, Editora Palindromo, Sao Paolo, Brasil, September, 2006.
De un salto descabalga la reina, Editorial Debate, Madrid, 2002. English version:
Cleopatra Dismounts, Grove Press, 2003, trans. Geoff Hargreaves.
Treinta años, Alfaguara, 1999. English version: Leaving Tabasco, Grove Press, New
York, 2001, trans. Geoff Hargraves.
Cielos de la tierra, Alfaguara, 1997. English version: Heavens on Earth, trans. Shelby
Vincent, Deep Vellum, 2017.
Quizá, Monte Avila Editores (contains Boullosa´s two first published novels, Mejor
desaparece, Antes, and an unpublished short novel, Así pensó el niño), Caracas,
1995.
Duerme, Alfaguara, Madrid, 1994. German: Der fremde Tod, Suhrkamp, 1994,
trans. Susanne Lange. French: Duerme, L’eau des lacs du temps jadis,
L’atalante, 1997, and Le serpent a plumes 1999, trans. by Claude Fell. Italian:
Dorme, Ed. Le Lettere, 2000, trans. Antonella Ciabatti. Dutch: De Schone
Slaapster, Arena, Amsterdam, 1995, trans. Aline Glastra von Loon.
La milagrosa, Ediciones ERA, 1993. English version: The Miracle Worker, Jonathan
Cape, London, 1994, trans. Amanda Hopkinson. German: Die Wundertäterin,
edition Suhrkamp, 1993, trans. Susanne Lange. Italian: La Miracolosa,
Vallecchi Editore, 1996, and La Milagrosa, Feltrinelli, 2001, trans. Pino
Cacucci.
El Médico de los piratas: bucaneros y filibusteros en el Caribe, Ediciones Siruela,
Madrid, 1992.
Llanto: novelas imposibles, Ediciones ERA, 1992.
Son vacas, somos puercos: filibusteros del mar Caribe, Ediciones ERA, Mexico City,
1991, English version: They’re Cows, We’re Pigs, Grove Press, New York, 1997,
trans. Lee Chambers. German: Sir sind Kühe, wir sind Schweine, edition
Suhrkamp, trans. Erna Pfeiffer, 1991; French: Eux les vaches, nous les porcs,
Le serpent a plumes, Paris, 2002, trans. Claude Fell.
Antes, Vuelta, Mexico City, 1989. German version: Verfolgt, trans. Susanne Lange,
Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, 1996. Chinese: ed. 1999. French: Avant, Les Allusifs,
trans. Sabine Coudassot-Ramírez, Quebec, Canadá, 2002. English version: Before, trans. Peter Bush, Deep Vellum, 2016.
Mejor desaparece, Océano, Mexico City, 1987. English version: Just Disappear,
trans. Christi Rodgers, VDM Verlag, 2009.
SHORT STORIES:
El fantasma y el poeta, Ediciones Sexto Piso, México, 2007 –Spanish edition with
a foreword by Antonio Massoliver Ródenas, 2007.
PLAYS:
Los Totoles, Editorial Alfaguara, México, 2000.
Mi versión de los hechos, Arte y Cultura ediciones, México, 1997.
Pesca de piratas: audiolibro, Producción de Radio Educación, México, 1993.
Teatro Herético: Propusieron a Maria: diálogo imposible en un acto, Cocinar
Hombres, Aura y las once mil vírgenes. Universidad Autónoma de Puebla,
Puebla, Mexico, 1987.
Cocinar hombres: obra de teatro íntimo, Ediciones La Flor (mimeograph), Mexico
City, 1985.
FEATURE MOVIE:
Las paredes hablan, dir. Antonio Zavala, with Kuno Becker, María Aura, Héctor
Bonilla, Mario Zaragoza, Miguel Rodarte, among others. Production: Teté
Films, producers Anna Roth, Andrew Fierberg and Juan Aura. Mexico, 2014.
CHILDREN´S BOOKS:
Sólo para muchachos, Alfaguara, 1997.
La Midas, CIDCLI, Mexico City, 1986.
ESSAYS:
A Narcohistory: How Mexico And The US Jointly Constructed the “Mexican Drug
War,” co-authored with Mike Wallace, OR Books, New York, 2015. Spanish
version: Narcohistoria, traducción al español de Hugo López Araiza, 2017.
Taurus-Penguin-Random House, México, 2016. Narcohistory, Counterpoint trade edition, 2017. Narcohistory(trans,), Shanghai Translation Publishing 2018, Es Reicht!, first German edition at Kunstmann, 2016. Second at Bundeszentrale fur
politische Bildung, 2017. Narcos del Norte, Italian edition, Rossenberg y Sellier,
2018.
When Mexico Recaptures Texas, essays, translated by Nicolas Kanellos, Arte Público
Press, 2015.
Azúcar negra, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 2013.
Rosario Castellanos: mujer de letras, Edición especial, Congreso Internacional La
experiencia de las mujeres, Conaculta, México, 2012.
Cuando fui mortal, Editorial Cal y Arena, México, November, 2010. Papeles irresponsables, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico, 1989.
