Basque author Kirmen Uribe is a New York Public Library Cullman Fellow 2018-2019, where he is working on his new novel titled The Book She Writes, inspired by Edith Wynner’s life, the secretary of Rosika Schwimmer, a Hungarian feminist, suffragist and peace activist who lived in the United States in the 1920s till her death in 1948. By the way, Kirmen is using the office where Lorrie Moore was working the year before, while on the same fellowship.
As part of the Cullman Centre Fellowship, on Wednesday 7th of November Kirmen held a presentation of The Book She Writes at a private event at the New York Public Library in the heart of Manhattan. The purpose was to explain his writing process, the research and the story behind it to a selected group of librarians, editors and scouts, including Salvatore Scibona, the director of the library. The Book She Writes will be published in Euskera (deal on the way) and in Spanish (deal concluded with Seix Barral) in late 2019. Kirmen Uribe’s work is the highest form of world literature. Writing in a minority language gives him a unique perspective on history, language, culture and the world we live in today. Many (can you say this as “some” sounds rather lukewarm!) of the attendees said they just loved Kirmen’s description of his writing process and that the novel in progress sounded very inspiring.
Although nobody from the Pontas Agency could be there, Anna Soler-Pont and Maria Cardona had recorded a short introductory video to welcome everyone from the publishing industry whom they had invited.
Kirmen Uribe (Ondarroa, 1970) is, according to the critics, one of the most relevant writers of his generation in Spain. Bilbao-New York-Bilbao earned him, at thirty-nine, the biggest and most prestigious literary distinction for a Spanish author, the National Prize of Literature. The Hour of Waking Together, Kirmen’s next big novel, was published in 2016 and also translated into several languages. Inspired by a true story, it was seen as a huge literary event. Kirmen was an Iowa International Program Fellow in 2017. He writes in Euskera (Basque).
For more information, please contact Maria Cardona.