Jorge Luis Arzola

Cuban writer born in Jatibonico, Sancti Spíritus (1966). Arzola belongs to a new generation of writers, the so-called "novísimos".

With El pájaro sin cabeza, in 1991 and Prisionero en el Círculo del Horizonte, in 1994, he was able for the first time to reach a wider audience. Other works of his, such as Fábula de ángeles (1997) and the anthology Junge Erzähler aus Kuba, edited by Michi Strausfeld, now in German and Spanish, were published in Cuban and international anthologies.

For La Bandada Infinita, he was awarded the Premio Alejo Carpentier in Cuba, published in the year 2000.

This volume contains the short story titled "Cosas Esenciales", in which the author, in an unusually dense language, interweaves the varied combination of erotic desires with themes of those who fled and freedom. The narrative voice, in a constant manner, loosens the firmly established patterns of identity and attempts to define a new language in the context of sexual conduct.

Jorge Luis Arzola was invited by the German Academic Exchange Service in Berlin in 2003, and had a grant from the "Writers in Exile" program until 2006. He lives in Cologne and is currently working on his second novel "Los más huesos blancos".

Awards
Premio Alejo Carpentier, 2000.

Bibliography
El pájaro sin cabeza. Ediciones Ávila. Ciego de Ávila, 1991.
Prisionero en El Círculo del Horizonte. La Habana, Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1994.
La Bandada Infinita. La Habana, Editorial Lectras Cubanas, 2000.
Todos los buitres y el Tigre. Madrid, Ediciones Ciruela, 2006.