Chilean writer, poet, novelist, and playwright living in the US since 1992. He is a corresponding member of the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (ANLE), and a regular contributor of opinion articles for Le Monde Diplomatique, Chilean edition, Impacto Latino, NY, El Desconcierto, Chile, TodoLiteratura, Spain, and Letralia. His poetry has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies in the United States, France and Latin America and partially translated into English, French and Romanian.
As a poet, he has participated in International Festivals and poetry readings in Paris, the United States, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, India, and Costa Rica, among others.
Awards:
Honored Poet of the 17th Hispanic/Latino Book Fair Queens, 2023
Finalist International Latino Book Award 2018: category “best fiction book in translation Spanish to English” for Y todos éramos actores, un siglo de luz y sombra (2016) /And All of Us Were Actors, A Century of Light and Shadow translated by Andrea G. Labinger.
Poetry Park Award, Rotterdam, 1989 for “Dr. Zamenhofstraat”
Publications
Poetry
Si lo hubiera sabido… Valparaíso Ediciones. España, Colombia, 2024.
Y aún queda espacio en mi mochila. Puerto Rico. Editorial LaCriba, 2024.
POŞTA POEZIEI/El correo de la poesía. Rumania. Editorial Kult, 2023, translated by Carmen Bulzan.
Un poète dans la ville / Un poeta en la ciudad. Paris, Éditions l’Harmattan, 2023, translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas.
Invocación de confines/Invocarea limitei. Chile, Independently Poetry, 2024, translated by Carmen Bulzan.
Un poète dans la ville /un poeta en la ciudad. París, L’Harmattan, 2024, translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas.
Desde el fondo del tintero: Dalibá, la brujita del Caribe (París 1982), ExIliadas (Rotterdam 1988). HLCCNY, 2023.
hombre de américa/man of the americas. Nueva York Poetry Press, NY, 2022, translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas y Andrea G. Labinger.
deseos / longings / j’aimerais tant. Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, 2020, translated by Andrea G. Labinger, English, and Priscilla Gac-Artigas, French.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Gac-Artigas
I ASK FOR FORGIVENESS
.
without your permission
i stole part of your lives
.
without your permission
i allowed myself to relive an instant of your loves
.
without your permission
i took over your feelings
.
without your permission
i tried to decipher your secrets
.
without your permission
i witnessed the birth and death of a love
.
without your permission
i allowed myself to capture your tears
.
without your permission
i brought you into my home and my dreams
.
without your permission
i read your letters before they were written
.
without your permission
i spied on you to invade your thoughts
.
i ask for forgiveness
without your permission
today i am addressing you
Translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas
Fulbright Scholar, Full member of the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (ANLE), corresponding member of the Real Academia (RAE), professor of Latin American literature at Monmouth University, NJ, USA. Translator of poetry into French and English.
_______
CHRONOS
exhausted by the passage of time
i wondered which of the letters
would be the first to disappear
.
i knew that the moment would come
.
and with it these things would vanish:
a date
a face
a name
a memory
.
on that day i would begin to die
.
slowly i would advance toward my birth
toward the image of a suitcase traveling through the air
toward my cradle
the first of my deaths
.
perhaps in an old black and white photo
the face of a first love will remain
but the face beside it will slowly disappear
and i will ask, who is that strange woman
and why does she appear in my dreams
.
early every morning
in a sort of conjuration
i look over the letters that defy me
from my keyboard
while i wonder
which will be the first to disappear
and with it
from one oblivion to another
.
my first memories
.
the source of my writing
_____
Translated by Andrea G. Labinger
Professor emerita of Spanish at the University of La Verne, holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and specializes in translating Latin American Literature. Three of her novel translations were finalists in the PEN Literary Competition.