"Chicano writers from El Paso are the most progressive, open-minded, far-reaching, and inclusive writers of them all."

Octavio Romano

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

UTEP Grad Wins Prominent Literary Prize

Nov. 10, 2006

Media Contact: Laura S. Ruelas

Writer, University Communications

915/747-5085

UTEP Grad Wins Prominent Literary Prize

Author Part of University’s Unique Bilingual Creative Writing Program

Argentine writer and recent UTEP graduate Betina González has won the 2006 Clarín Novel Prize for her work, "Arte menor."

Sponsored by Clarín, a major Argentine newspaper, the literary competition drew more than 800 entries. A jury of distinguished authors selected “Arte menor” as the best unpublished novel written in Spanish. González was awarded a $100,000 peso (about $32,000 U.S. dollars) royalty advance from Argentine publisher Clarín-Alfaguara. She received the award during a ceremony last month at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires.

“It is a kind of a reward for my years and years of silent writing and for the daily exercise of discipline and dedication that’s (involved) in being a writer,” said González. “This is the beginning of a new phase in my career.”

Her book narrates the story of a daughter who follows the tracks of her dead father through the testimonies of his former lovers. She tries to understand who her father was--a failed poet, terrible parent, unfaithful husband--and in some measure, redeem him. The novel, written as a thesis project under the direction of UTEP professor of language and linguistics Luis Arturo Ramos, was praised by members of the jury, including Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago and the famed Spanish novelist Rosa Montero.

González attributes her success to hard work and the support she received at UTEP from her professors in the Creative Writing program, Ramos and Johnny Payne.

“This is a huge prize, pan-Latin American, about the equivalent of winning the Pulitzer Prize in the U.S. We are very proud of Betina,” said Payne, chair of the Department of Creative Writing.

González received her master’s in Bilingual Creative Writing from UTEP this past spring. She currently attends the University of Pittsburgh, where she is working on a doctorate in Hispanic Languages and Literatures.

Since 1998, Clarín has awarded writers from across the globe an opportunity to have their works published. The goal of the award is to attract attention to the up and coming literary community and the art of classic fiction novels. This year’s entries came from Greece, Argentina, Costa Rica, Spain, the United States, Israel and Peru.

Clarín was founded by Roberto Noble in 1945. Based in Buenos Aires, the newspaper is distributed throughout Argentina. The electronic version, www.clarin.com, is one of the most visited Spanish-language newspapers on the Internet.

For more information about the Clarín Novel Prize, visit www.premios.clarin.com.ar/premio_novela/index.html.

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2 comments:

Proud Anglo said...

Spanish-- yet ANOTHER reason to hate the Beaners

Patriotic Americans can rattle off any number of reasons to demonstrate how our Spic-- oh sorry, "Latino" infestation is the worst plague our country's had since AIDS. Here's another one-- Beaners have truly the worst, stupidest, lamest, laziest, most incompetent, ugliest, most useless f***ed-up language ever made. Spanish is a cultural abbomination that only the Spics could love.

Let's see, in English we have the great writers, and playwrights that everybody in the world wants to imitate, we have Milton, Tolkien, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Austen, the Brontes, Blake, Kipling, Whitman, Poe, Lovecraft, Mellville, Frost, Eliot, Emerson, even modern great writers like King and Grisham. We've got the greatest singers like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley, Aerosmith, U-2, Guns 'n' Roses, Streisand, Sinatra, Martin and Lewis, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey-- you name it, we Anglos dominate it. We've got the greatest TV shows and movies. In short, in all branches of literature, music, TV and movies, English just rules over the pathetic gobbledygook known as "Spanish," 'nuff said.

And in Spanish, what do the Beaners have to match up to English? They've got, oh, uh, lemme see here-- oh yeah, that's right, Julio Iglesias. Since they have such a brilliant-o great-o singer like Julio, this clearly goes to show the great artistic heights of Spanish and Spic culture. NOT.

Oh, yeah, Spanish can also take great pride in its ghetto-pimp, no-talent, ugly, sorry-ass hip-hop dumbass wannabes like Daddy Yankee and Don Ommar or talentless little sluts like Shakira or Paulina Rubia who stink up the airwaves emenating from an otherwise decent radio. Wow, we Anglos are all so impressed by your talent. NOT.

We Anglos-- or maybe gringos, you like that one better?-- we hate your sorry fat asses here in more ways than anyone can count, it's hard to choose, anymore. Spanish is nothing more than noise pollution, and we Americans look forward to the wonderful day when we wouldn't again have to hear any loser mumbling "por favor" or "gracias" here in this Anglo country anymore, that would be almost as great a day as the United States winning WWII since we'd finally get to rid our country of this infestation. And don't even start up with the BS about how "the border crossed us," oh boo-f***ing hoo, this is Anglo turf now-- you Beaners not only lost the Mexican War, you got your SORRY ASSES HANDED to you by the Anglos, no doubt while you were busy goofing around and babbling in your monkey tongue and screwing your senoritas while the Anglos were out there marching on Mexico City. You suck-- just deal with it.

I can think of nothing better than to dedicate myslef to eradicating this verbal diarrhea known as Spanish from the US, as should any patriotic Gringo. The sooner we can rid ourselves of Hispanic stench in all its forms, the better off we'll all be. Have a nice day and don't choke on your tacos, Beaners.

Signed,

Anglo and Proud of It, the Gringo who haunts your dreams at night

Raymundo Eli Rojas said...

Umh...It's all linguistics! Take it in college sometime. Half of the English language is French with a large dose of words borrowed from Latin and Spanish.