David Unger (author)

David Unger (born 6 November 1950) is a Guatemalan author, translator, and educator.[1] Unger teaches at the City College of New York. He works as the International Rep for the Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara.

For other people named David Unger, see David Unger (disambiguation).
David Unger
Unger at the Miami Book Fair International, 2014
Born6 November 1950
Guatemala City, Guatemala
NationalityGuatemalan
OccupationAuthor and translator

Early life

He was born on November 6, 1950 in Guatemala City. In 1955, he immigrated to Hialeah, Florida with his parents.

Unger graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a B.A. and received an MFA in 1975 from Columbia University.

Works
  • Moley Mole/Topo Pecoso (Greenseed Publishing, 2021)
  • Sleeping With the Light On (Groundwood Books, 2020)
  • Vivir en el maldito tropico (F y G Editores, 2016)
  • The Mastermind (Akashic Books, 2016
  • Planeta Mexico: 2015, Polish, Arabic, Italian, Macedonian, Turkish, etc.)
  • Para mi, eres divina (Guatemala: Editorial Cultura, 2014), (Mexico: Random House Mondadori, 2011)
  • La Casita: Forgetting Spanish (Mexico: CIDCLI, 2014)
  • El precio de la fuga (Guatemala: F y G Editores, 2013)
  • La Casita (Mexico: CIDCLI, 2012)
  • The Price of Escape (New York: Akashic Books, 2011)
  • Ni chicha, ni limonada (F y G Editores, 2009, 2019; Recorded Books, 2010)
  • Life in the Damn Tropics (Wisconsin University Press, 2004), which has been published in Spanish (Mexico: Random House, 2004) and Chinese (Taipei: Locus Publishers, 2006)
  • Neither Caterpillar Nor Butterfly (New York: Es Que Somos Muy Pobres Press, 1985).

Translations

He translated more than a dozen books, including three books by Rigoberta Menchu (Groundwood Books), two books by Teresa Cardenas (Groundwood Books), The Love You Promised Me by Silvia Molina (Curbstone Press), First Love by Elena Garro (Curbstone Press) and The Dead Leaves by Barbara Jacobs (Curbstone Press). In 2022 his retranslation of Miguel Angel Asturias's Mr. President was published by Penguin Classics. In 2019 he published his translation of Stories We Were Never Told (PenguinRandomHouse).

Editor

He is the editor and the main translator of Nicanor Parra's Antipoems: New and Selected (New Directions), Parra's most complete collection. He contributed to Enrique Lihn's The Dark Room (New York: New Directions, 1978) and Roque Dalton's Short Hours of the Night (Willimantic: Curbstone Press). Though he writes in English, he is considered among Guatemala's most important living writers..

Recognition
  • Miguel Angel Asturias National Literature Prize for lifetime achievement (2014).

Personal life

Unger lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, artist Anne Gilman.[2]

References
  1. "David Unger". Indent Literary Agency. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  2. "David Unger". Indent Literary Agency. Retrieved 2022-03-11.

Interviews with David Unger

Articles about David Unger

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