Ena Lucía Portela Arzola

Cuban narrator and essayist. Graduate in Classical Languages and Literatures from the University of La Habana.

She graduated from the University of La Habana with a degree in Classical Languages and Literatures. Part of the generation known as the "novísimos," her first story: "La urna y el nombre," a cheerful tale appears in the renowned anthology "Los últimos serán los primeros."

In 1996 she received the Fronesis scholarship, awarded by the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS), for her novel project "El pájaro: pincel y tinta china".

Ena is a member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba and a contributor to Revista Encuentro.

Her first novel, "El pájaro: pincel y tinta china" won in 1997 the Cirilo Villaverde Prize from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), and was published in 1999 by Ediciones Unión, Cuba, and by Editorial Casiopea, Spain.

"Una extraña entre las piedras" (stories) was published by Editorial Letras Cubanas, Cuba, in 1999.

"El viejo, el asesino y yo" (story) won in 1999 the Juan Rulfo Prize for Short Story awarded by Radio Francia Internacional, and was published by Editorial Letras Cubanas, Cuba, in 2000.

"La sombra del caminante" (novel) was published by Ediciones Unión, Cuba, in 2001, in 2006 by Editorial Kailas, Spain, and in 2016 by Bokeh press, Leiden, Netherlands.

"Cien botellas en una pared" (novel) won in 2002 the Jaén Prize for the novel awarded by the Savings Bank of Granada. That same year it was published by Debate, Spain. In 2003 it was published by Ediciones Unión, Cuba, and by Éditions du Seuil, France, and won the Two Oceans–Grinzane Cavour Prize awarded by French critics to the best Latin American novel published in France over a two-year period. In 2004 it was published by Ámbar, Portugal and by Voland, Italy. In 2005 by Meulenhoff, Netherlands and by Wydawnictwo W.A.B., Poland. It will soon be published by Potamós, Greece and by Dogan, Turkey.

"Alguna enfermedad muy grave" (stories) was published in 2006 by HK, Spain.

"Djuna y Daniel" (novel) was published by Random House Mondadori, Spain and by Ediciones Unión, Cuba, earning the Critics' Prize as one of the ten best books published in Cuba that year.

In May 2007, during the Bogotá Book Fair, a jury composed of three prestigious Colombian novelists chose her as one of the 39 most important Latin American writers under 39 years old.

Ena Lucía Portela's narrative is characterized by its baroque form, the repeated use of quotations and cultural references, and exquisiteness in the use of language.

She is one of the narrators who has shown the most interest in unveiling the intricacies of marginality in the context of Havana in the nineteen nineties. Other recurring themes in her work are the gay universe and the literary fact itself (the lettered city and its characters). Her work shows marked influence from Djuna Barnes and the so-called roman à clef, as well as pulp fiction.

Ena Lucía lives in Havana, belongs to the new generation of writers of the island and especially to a possible cohort of female narrators in a country where in general terms women have been more poets than narrators, she says she is part of a new generation of writers "very individualistic, that gives more importance to literature than to politics."

Ena Lucía Portela is more honest and direct than most people usually accept. She scandals them. She has made the decision to be a free woman. She is extremely intelligent and sensitive. She is also ironic and sarcastic. She has a great sense of humor. She is politically incorrect, in the manner of Borges. She is beautiful. She has suffered, since very young, from Parkinson's disease. She speaks several languages. Many fear her.

For eight years she has not left her home, barely a fraction of an old mansion in Vedado where several families live. Just a few square meters, shared with her mother until her death in August 2015, is all the space she has inhabited during that time.

She only receives a few friends. Since 2010, only one interview. She has also not given conferences or public readings, nor has she been seen at any other literary event. Her link with the outside world is the telephone. She refuses to use email or Internet, convinced that the connection offered to her as a writer lacks privacy.

Universities and literary scholars from around the world are interested in her work. Her texts are analyzed at the Sorbonne, at Leyden, in Gothenburg, at the University of Madison, in Wisconsin, at the City University of New York, at the University of California, at the University of Kansas, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and, even, at the University of La Habana.

For almost a decade she has had a single purpose: to write, edit and polish La última pasajera: what should be her next novel, and her masterpiece.

Ena first turned to chess, which she practiced in primary school Carlos Hernández.

She would then go through junior high school and pre-university at the Vocational School of Exact Sciences "Humboldt 7", which she has described as "a little school for 'gifted children' out in San Antonio de Los Baños, where they 'formed' us with extreme rigor, hardly less than sadistic, we future physicists and mathematicians who would later study in the GDR and then would start up the Juraguá nuclear power plant, a project that was cancelled in 1989."

A seven-year period at the University of La Habana followed. She began studying Mathematics on the Hill, but after completing her first year she abandoned that career to move to the Dihigo building, where in 1992 she enrolled in Philology. During those years, that girl who was supposed to attend classes, respect her professors, pass exams was, at the same time, one of the most promising Cuban writers of the moment. Her own teachers sometimes took advantage of free time to study her texts. Her aspiration was to stay as a professor of Greek, a language she speaks perfectly, but it was dismissed with the argument that she lacked humility.

The diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease at just 20 years old was the explanation for denying her employment placement not only in the Faculty, but also at Casa de las Américas, the Institute of Literature and Linguistics, the Alejo Carpentier Foundation, among other institutions. It was Dr. Graziella Pogolotti who, according to Ena, valued her authenticity and offered her work as an editor in the narrative department of Ediciones Unión, where she works to this day in telework.

She had grown up in a literary environment. Her father, who left for the United States when she was very young, was a translator, and her mother was a style editor. The house, as is logical, was full of books, and the girl devoured them little by little. Thus at 18 years old she would publish for the first time, in a magazine, the story "Dos almas en una pecera".

Works
1999: El pájaro: pincel y tinta china (novel). Ediciones UNIÓN, La Habana, ISBN 959-209-241-9. Editorial Casiopea, Barcelona, ISBN 84-923-649-8-X. Cirilo Villaverde Prize from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba 1997 (UNEAC).
1999: Una extraña entre las piedras (stories). Editorial Letras Cubanas, ISBN 959-08-0266-4.
2000: El viejo, el asesino y yo (story) Editorial Letras Cubanas, ISBN 959-10-0581-4. Juan Rulfo Prize for Short Story 1999, from Radio Francia Internacional.
2001: La sombra del caminante (novel). Ediciones UNIÓN, ISBN 959-209-376-8 (2006: Editorial Kailas, Spain; 2016: Bokeh, Leiden, Netherlands, ISBN 978-94-91515-44-6.
2002: Cien botellas en una pared (novel). Debate, Madrid, ISBN 84-8306-956-3. (2003: Ediciones Unión, Cuba ISBN 959-209-504-3; Éditions Du Seuil, Paris, ISBN 2-02-055171-3. Two Oceans-Grinzane Cavour Prize, awarded by French critics to the best Latin American book published in France over a two-year period. 2004: Ámbar, Portugal, ISBN 972-43-0742-5. 2005: J.M. Meulenhoff, Netherlands, ISBN 90-290-7503-1. 2004: Wydawnictwo W.A.B., Poland, ISBN 83-7414-078-X. 2006: Voland, Italy, ISBN 88-88700-70-6) Jaén Prize for the Novel.
2008: Djuna y Daniel (novel). Mondadori, ISBN 84-397-2093-9.
2017: Con hambre y sin dinero (non-fiction). Ediciones UNIÓN. La Habana, Cuba. ISBN: 978-959-308-267-9. This volume brings together essays, articles, chronicles, reviews, and other reflective texts written by Ena Lucía Portela over two decades. Edited and with a prologue by Daniel Díaz Mantilla.
Her texts (stories, essays, testimonies, critical articles, novel fragments) have appeared in various anthologies, and in Cuban and foreign magazines and other periodicals. She is considered one of the best exponents of the so-called generation of the "novísimos" in Cuban literature.