Guest of the ilb 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008
Eliot Weinberger was born in 1949 in New York City. His books of literary writings include »Works on Paper« (1986) and »Karmic Traces« (2000). Most recently, his essay »Obama v. Clinton: A Retrospective« (2008) has been published. His work has been translated into some thirty languages. In Germany, the selection of his essays, »Kaskaden« (2003) and his »serial essay« »An Elemental Thing« (2008) was published, and Weinberger is regular contributor to »Lettre International«.
His political articles are collected in »9/12« (2003), »What I Heard About Iraq« (2005), and »What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles« (2005), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award for criticism and selected for the »Times Literary Supplement’s« International Books of the Year. »What I Heard About Iraq« has been adapted into a prize-winning theatre piece, two cantatas, two radio plays, a dance performance, and various art installations. It has appeared on some 100,000 websites and was read or performed in nearly one hundred events throughout the world on 20 March 2006, the anniversary of the invasion.
The author of a study of Chinese poetry translation, »19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei« (1987), he is the translator of »Unlock« (2000) by the exiled poet Bei Dao, and the editor of »The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry« (2003), also a »TLS« International Book of the Year. He has edited anthologies of contemporary American and international poetry, and his many translations of the work of Octavio Paz include the »Collected Poems 1957-1987« (1988). His other translations include works by Vicente Huidobro, Xavier Villaurrutia, and Jorge Luis Borges. His edition of Borges’ »Selected Non-Fictions« (1999) received the National Book Critics Circle award for criticism.
In 1992, he was the first recipient of the PEN/Kolovakos Award for his promotion of Hispanic literature in the U.S. In 2000, he became the only American literary writer to be awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the government of Mexico. He is prominently featured in the »Visitor’s Key to Iceland«, and was chosen by the German organization Dropping Knowledge as one of the »world’s most innovative thinkers.«
»He has seemingly read, read about, or seen firsthand practically everything on planet Earth«, writes the »Multicultural Review« about Eliot Weinberger. In his essays, he uses the full scope of what he sees as the unlimited potential of the genre even formally, and many of his texts, while strictly »non-fiction«, are closer to prose poetry or narrative than traditional essays. The political reality of our time together with literature are what constitute our world, which Weinberger discovers anew. There is one criteria that Weinberger's essays must always fulfill: »I never make things up«, says Weinberger, referring to the verifiability of all of the seemingly fantastic details. »His work« writes the »Times Literary Supplement«, »makes you sit up in your seat.« He lives in New York City.
© international literature festival berlin
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