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tipo de entidade
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Unger, David
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Datas de existência
1950-
Histórico
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