Draft:David Unger (author)

File:David Unger.jpg

David Unger, a Guatemalan-born novelist and translator, received Guatemala’s Miguel Angel Asturias Literature Prize in 2014 for lifetime achievement. He has published In My Eyes, You Are Beautiful (Mosaic Press, 2023), The Mastermind (Akashic Books, 2016; sold into 9 language markets). El precio de la fuga (2014) children’s book La Casita (2009). In 2011 he published Para Mi, Eres Divina (Random House Mondadori, Mexico) and The Price of Escape (New York: Akashic Books). He is also the author of Ni chicha, ni limonada (Guatemala: F y G Editores, 2019, 2009), Life in the Damn Tropics (Syracuse University Press, 2002, Wisconsin University Press, 2004, [Vivir en el maldito trópico 2018, 2004]. His short stories and essays have appeared in Delta de las arenas: cuentos árabes, cuentos judíos (Houston, TX: Literal Publishers, 2013), Puertos Abiertos (FCE, Mexico, 2011), Make Magazine (September 2011), Guernica Magazine Letras Libres, The Paris Review, Caratula.net KGBBarLit, and Playboy Mexico.

He has translated eighteen books, among them Miguel Angel Asturias’ Mr. President Penguin Classics, 2022, which received a NYSCA Translation grant in 2017. Folktales for Fearless Girls (Penguin, 2019) Rigoberta Menchú’s The Secret Legacy (Groundwood, 2008) The Honey Jar (Groundwood, 2006) and The Girl from Chimel (Groundwood, 2005); Teresa Cárdenas’s Old Dog (Groundwood, 2007: 2008 Latino prize) and Letters to My Mother (Groundwood, 2006), Ana María Machado’s Me in the Middle (Groundwood, 2002), Silvia Molina’s The Love You Promised Me (Curbstone Press,1999 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize and shortlisted for the 2001 IMPAC Prize); The Popol Vuh (Groundwood, 1999); Elena Garro’s First Love (Curbstone Press); Bárbara Jacobs The Dead Leaves (Curbstone Press); and Nicanor Parra’s Antipoems: New and Selected (New Directions).

His children's books included Jose Feeds the World (Duopress, 2024), Topo pecoso/Moley Mole, a bilingual picture book (Greenseeds Publishing, 2020), Sleeping With the Light (Groundwood Books, 2019) and La Casita (CIDCLI, 2012).

Unger has been a featured writer in book festivals in Prague, Warsaw, Istanbul, San Juan, Miami, Guatemala City, Bógota, Lima, Los Angeles, La Paz, Buenos Aires and Guadalajara. He teaches Translation in City College of New York’s MFA Program and is the U.S. rep of the Guadalajara International Book Fair.

https://www.asymptotejournal.com/blog/2022/07/14/death-hope-and-humor-david-unger-on-translating-miguel-angel-asturiass-mr-president/

https://english.ccny.cuny.edu/david-unger/

https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2014-01/the-city-and-the-writer-in-guatemala-city-with-david-unger/

https://atrumpetofsedition.org/2023/08/17/interview-with-guatemalan-writer-david-unger-2/