César Aira (Argentine Spanish: [ˈsesaɾ ˈajɾa]) was born on February 23, 1949, in Coronel Pringles, a town in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. He is an Argentine writer and translator who is considered an important figure in modern Argentine literature. He has written more than 100 short books, including stories, novels, and essays. He has given talks at the University of Buenos Aires about the writers Copi and Arthur Rimbaud, and at the University of Rosario about Constructivism and the writer Stéphane Mallarmé. He has also translated and edited books from countries such as France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela.

Work

In addition to writing fiction and translating texts for a living, Aira also writes literary criticism. His work includes detailed studies of the poet Copi, the poet Alejandra Pizarnik, and the nineteenth-century British writer Edward Lear, who is known for limericks and nonsense poetry. Aira wrote a short book titled Las tres fechas (The Three Dates), in which he emphasizes the importance of examining three key moments when studying the work of some unusual writers: the time when the writer was writing, the time when the work was completed, and the time when the work was published. Aira also served as the literary executor for the complete works of his friend, the poet and novelist Osvaldo Lamborghini (1940–1985).

Style

Aira often discusses his approach to creating an unusual style in his writing. Instead of changing what he has written, he uses a method called "flight forward" (fuga hacia adelante) to find ways out of difficult situations he creates in his stories. He also looks for and praises a continuous flow of action in stories, called "continuum" (el continuo). Because of this, his stories can suddenly change genres and often use storytelling techniques from popular culture and less serious genres, such as pulp science fiction and television soap operas. He often avoids ending his stories in the way readers might expect, leaving many of his works without clear conclusions.

His stories cover a wide range of topics, including themes from Surrealist or Dadaist art movements and imaginative tales set in his hometown of Flores in Buenos Aires. He also frequently returns to stories about 19th-century Argentina, as seen in books like The Hare and An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, as well as his early novel Ema la cautiva (Emma, the Captive). He often explores ideas about an exotic East in works such as A Chinese Novel, The Flyer, and The Little Buddhist Monk. He also teases himself and his childhood hometown, Coronel Pringles, in stories like How I Became a Nun, How I Laughed, The Musical Brain, and The Miraculous Cures of Dr. Aira. His novella La prueba (1992) inspired the film Tan de repente (Suddenly) (2002), though the film only follows the first part of the novella. His novel How I Became a Nun was chosen as one of the ten best publications in Spain in 1998.

Personal life

Aira lives in Flores, Buenos Aires. His wife, Liliana Ponce, is a poet and studies Japanese literature. They have two children.

Awards and honours

• Konex Award for Translation in 1994
• Konex Award for Novel in 2004
• Prix Roger Caillois in 2014
• Neustadt International Prize for Literature – finalist in 2014
• Man Booker International Prize – finalist in 2015
• America Awards in 2016
• Manuel Rojas Ibero-American Narrative Award in 2016
• Prix Formentor in 2021