David Unger papers

Elementos de identidade

Nome e localização da entidade custodiadora

Nível de descrição

Coleção

Título

David Unger papers

Data(s)

  • circa 1960s-2023 (Produção)

Dimensão

6.50 linear feet (11 document cases, 1 flat archival box)

Nome do produtor

(1950-)

História biográfica

David Unger (1950-) is a NYC-based writer and translator from Guatemala. In 2014, he received the Miguel Angel Asturias National Literature Prize for lifetime achievement from Guatemala. He authored the novels The Price of Escape; Para Mi, Eres Divina; Ni chicha, ni limonada; and Life in the Damn Tropics, which have been translated in multiple languages. For example, his 2016 novel called The Mastermind was translated in Italian, Turkish, Polish, and Arabic.

In addition to novels, he wrote many short stories featured in literary journals and anthologies in the United States and other countries. His stories were also published in magazines, such as Playboy Mexico, Guernica Magazine, and The Paris Review. In 2020, Unger published a children’s book entitled Sleeping with the Light On in homage to his parents, who had emigrated with him in 1955 – a year after a coup d’état overthrew Guatemala’s president Jacobo Arbenz. The book narrates how Luis and Fortuna protected young David from the harsh days of political turmoil and migration, envisioning how children could find a safe space in their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unger has developed a vast oeuvre as a translator for other work, such as those of Teresa Cárdenas, Rigoberta Menchú, Ana Maria Machado, Silvia Molina Elena Garro, Bárbara Jacobs, Nicanor Parra, and even the Popol Vuh, a mythological creation account from pre-Columbian Guatemala.

Unger currently teaches translation in the MFA Program of The City College of New York CUNY and lives in Brooklyn.

–Vanessa Rodrigues Barcelos da Silva
Graduate Student Assistant for Manuscripts and Archives Management, Summer 2024

Elementos de conteúdo e estrutura

Âmbito e conteúdo

This collection contains manuscripts, drafts, notes, poems, short stories, translations, and unpublished works by the award-winning Guatemalan author and translator, David Unger (1950-). Also featured within the collection are his correspondence (both personal and work-related), photographs, his education files from elementary school to university, book contracts, book reviews, article clippings, and artwork and prints by the artist, Walter Mosley.

Sistema de arranjo

Condições de acesso e uso dos elementos

Condições de acesso

This collection is unprocessed but open for research.

Acesso físico

This collection is kept in an off-campus storage facility. Please contact Special Collections at asc.library@miami.edu with the boxes you are interested in prior to your visit, and allow up to 1 week for delivery of materials.

Acesso técnico

Condiçoes de reprodução

Requests to reproduce or publish materials from this collection should be directed to asc.library@miami.edu.

Idiomas do material

  • chinês
  • inglês
  • espanhol

Escrita do material

  • han
  • latim

Notas ao idioma e script

Instrumentos de descrição

Elementos de aquisição e avaliação

História custodial

Fonte imediata de aquisição

Gift of David Unger, 05-13-24.

Informações de avaliação, seleção e eliminação

Ingressos adicionais

Elementos de materiais relacionados

Existência e localização de originais

Existência e localização de cópias

Material arquivístico relacionado

Books that arrived with the collection were separated out to be added into the online catalog: https://www.library.miami.edu/specialcollections/index.html.

Descrições relacionadas

Elemento de notas

Notas especializadas

Identificador(es) alternativo(s)

Elemento de controle de descrição

Regras ou convenções

Fontes utilizadas

Nota do arquivista

Finding aid created by Yvette Yurubi, Processing Archivist, 06-12-24.

Pontos de acesso

Pontos de acesso - Locais

Pontos de acesso - Nomes

Zona da incorporação