Read the first three chapters from The Scale of Maps at CityLights Press

"A novel and its protagonist create one another, in a tale strung between the work of Cervantes and Nabokov."

Sergio Prim is a staid and solitary middle-aged man who finds himself suddenly in love. A geographer by trade, but with a broken radar when it comes to navigating human relationships, he is thrown into a psychological crisis by the romantic advances of Brezo Varela, a lively young woman who shares his profession. Haunted by a series of hallucinations in which he's relentlessly pursued by a cynical, vampire-like seductress whose promises of pleasure fill him with horror, Prim attempts to seek refuge by immersing himself in an obsessive metaphysical quest: he determines that he must map the way to a place in which love never results in disillusionment. The Scale of Maps is the story of Prim's struggle to choose between living in the external world that his lover inhabits or continuing to hide in the "hollows" of his inner world; an intimate and mercilessly revealing examination of a meager and fearful life challenged by desire.

Belén Gopegui was born in Madrid, where she studied law and later worked as a newspaper columnist. Her first novel, La escala de los mapas, won the "Tigre Juan" prize and the "Iberoamericano Santiago del Nuevo Extremo" prize for first novels.

City Lights Books
World Literature Today
Powell's Books --(an excellent independent alternative to Amazon)
Amazon

What Spanish critics have said about The Scale of Maps and Belén Gopegui

"What is astonishing about this novel is the originality of its narrative strategies in harmony with the rhythm of its prose. Although the story it tells is skeptical and shameless, like a transcript of the chaos man finds himself currently surrounded by, the author has not fallen into the trap of employing a disarticulated, broken, or halting language to reflect this chaos but rather, has imposed a poetic order on the jumble by locating it on the literary plane, where the high-flying clouds demand a heightened sense of precision." Carmen Martín Gaite, Diario 16

"Plain and brilliant prose... A fable of love-laid-waste, an almost scientific story of the anguish of existence, a profoundly and deliberately distorted image of perverse reality, its space and time, a tragedy replete with tenderness and humor." Rafael Conte, ABC literario

"[The] artistic quality of [the] text is so unquestionable that any consideration that doesn't pertain to the fact of that quality is absolutely beside the point... It is impossible to get the sense of this novel without becoming entangled in its exquisite writing." J. Ernesto Ayala-Dip, El País

"Gopegui is one of our most outstanding young names [in Spanish literature]" Miguel Garcéa Posada, El País

"Gopegui is the incredible proof that a novel exists that is learned, intellectual, coherent, highly realist and experimental, full of the character of Madrid and very European, highly conceptual, and very emotional. " Francisco Umbral, El Mundo

"If anyone deserves a place of distinction in the panorama of contemporary Spanish narrative, it is Belén Gopegui." Francisco Rico, quoted in "Belén Gopegui and 'la nueva novela social'" by Anny Brooksbank Jones

Publishers Weekly
Reviewed 12/20/2010

The Kansas City Star
'The Scale of Maps' explores the boundaries of love

MARK SCHAFER

Lecturer, Hispanic Studies Department, University of Massachusetts at Boston

TRANSLATED BOOKS

• The Scale of Maps. Belén Gopegui. San Francisco: City Lights Publishers, (January 2011)
• Before Saying Any of the Great Words: Selected Poetry of David Huerta. David Huerta. Fort Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, (January 2009).
• Migrations. Gloria Gervitz. San Diego/Essex, UK: Junction Press/Shearsman Books, 2004.
• Stripping Away the Sorrows of This World, Jesús Gardea (Mexico City/San Francisco: Editorial Aldus, S.A./Mercury House, 1998).
• Mogador: The Names of the Air, Alberto Ruy Sánchez (San Francisco: City Lights Publishers, 1992).
• The Book of Embraces, Eduardo Galeano, translated by Cedric Belfrage and Mark Schafer (New York: W. W. Norton 1990).
• René's Flesh, Virgilio Piñera (Boston: Eridanos Press, 1989).
• Cold Tales, Virgilio Piñera (Hygiene, CO: Eridanos Press, 1988).

TRANSLATED STORIES, POEMS, ESSAYS & ORIGINAL ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

• Reading Poems to Boston Harbor: An Interview with Translator Mark Schafer", 17 November 2009
• “Song of Money” Poetry Daily (September 20, 2008)
• “Song of Money,” “Sweet Angel,” Before Saying Any of the Great Words,” “Song of Unease,” David Huerta, American Poetry Review, Vol. 37/No. 5 (September/October 2008): 33– 34.
• “Before Closing One's Eyes,” “Upon,” “Poem by Gottfried Benn,” “The Desert,” “A Visit from My Friend,” “Passions,” “Declaration of Antipoetry,” “Sick Man,” “Song of the Kiwi,” David Huerta, Oregon Literary Review, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Summer 2008)
• “Uproar,” David Huerta, The Bitter Oleander, Vol 14, No. 2 (Spring 2008): 88–89.
• “A Café Without Men,” “In Pornography,” “Puritan Playthings,” “Shipwrecks,” “Cities,” “Apparition,” “Can Matías Hill, on the Way to Matanzas,” “Nocturnal Emissions,” José Antonio Ponte, Island of my Hunger: Cuban Poetry Today, edited by Francisco Morán (San Francisco: City Lights Publishers, 2008): 166–181.
• “Toward the Surface,” David Huerta, Web Conjunctions, (January 10, 2008)
• “Index,” David Huerta, The Antioch Review, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Fall 2007): 686–687.
• Fifteen selections from Incurable, David Huerta, Mandorla Vol. 10 (2007): 45–65.
• “Words,” “Before Saying Any of the Great Words,” “Open and Close,” “Minor Failures,” David Huerta, Shearsman, Vol. 73 & 74 (Winter 2007/2008): 89–93.
• “The Desert,” “Song of Unease,” “Fruit,” “What I See,” “Sick Man,” David Huerta, Jacket, No. 33(July 2007),
• “Words,” David Huerta, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Vol. XXXII, No. 1(Winter/Spring 2007): 85–87.
• “The Bullfight,” David Huerta, Memorious, Issue 7 (February 2007)
• “Open and Close,” David Huerta, Salamander, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Spring 2007): 3.
• “Kitchen of Paradise,” David Huerta, Massachusetts Review, Vol. XLVII, No. 3 (Fall 2006): 510.
• “The Fall,” Virgilio Piñera, Felex Gonzalez-Torres, edited by Julie Ault (New York: steidldangin publishers, 2006): 152–153 [reprint/revised].
• “San Matías Hill, on the Way to Matanzas,” Antonio José Ponte, New Laurel Review, Vol. XXIII, (2006): 72.
• “Low Boil” and “Another Rooster,” David Huerta, Connecting Lines: New Poetry from Mexico, edited by Luis Cortés Bargalló and Forrest Gander (Louisville, KY: Sarabande Books, 2006): 57–61.
• “Three Songs of the Lunatic Moon” and “In the Wind’s Confidence,” Pedro Serrano, Connecting Lines: New Poetry from Mexico, edited by Luis Cortés Bargalló and Forrest Gander (Louisville, KY: Sarabande Books, 2006): 193–199.
• “Somewhat in The Style of Ishmael,” “Regarding the Planet,” “Song,” “Auguries,”
• “Cities, “A Seat in the Ruins,” Antonio José Ponte, Mandorla, No. 7, (2004): 175–179.
• “The Face,” Virgilio Piñera, ¡Cubanísimo! the Vintage Book of Contemporary Cuban Literature, edited by Cristina García (New York: Vintage Books, 2003): 227–235. [reprint]
• “Josephine Baker in Cuba,” Nicolás Guillén, ¡Cubanísimo! the Vintage Book of Contemporary Cuban Literature, edited by Cristina García (New York: Vintage Books, 2003): 219–223. [reprint]
• “One Crystal in Another: A Translation Conversation,” (review of No Shelter: The Selected Poems of Pura López-Colomé,) Mark Schafer, Perihelion, Issue 10, ( 2002).
• “Thirteen Propositions against Trivial Love,” “Machinery,” “Prayer for August 21,”
• “Pathological Beings,” “Bolero at Armageddon,” “Summer Mist,” “The Cauldron,” “Cancellation of a Construction Project,” “Descent,” “A Baroque Cell,” “Light from Parallel Worlds,” “Deck of Cards,” David Huerta, Reversible Monuments, edited by Mónica de la Torre and Michael Wiegers (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2002): 317–341.
• Selection from Migraciones, Gloria Gervitz, Reversible Monuments, edited by Mónica de la Torre and Michael Wiegers (Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 2002): 263–279.
• “I Hear Through Your Ears” from On Lips of Water, Alberto Ruy Sánchez, BOMB Magazine, No. 79 (Spring 2002): 94–96. Chapters 4 and 5, of Meaning to Eat, Antonio José Ponte, turnrow, (Winter 2001): 145– 151.
• “Prayer for August 21” and “The Cauldron,” David Huerta, BOMB Magazine, No. 78, (Winter 2001/2002): 84–86. Chapter 6 of Meaning to Eat, Antonio José Ponte, BOMB Magazine, No. 78, (Winter 2001/2002): 84–86.
• “Five Windows on the Same Side” and “Catching On,” in The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda, Sonia Rivera-Valdés, tr. Dick Cluster, Mark Schafer, Alan West-Durán, and Marina Harss, (New York City: Seven Stories Press, 2001).
• Chapters 1–3 of Meaning to Eat, Antonio José Ponte, Massachusetts Review, Vol. XLII, No. 2 (Summer 2001): 223–37.
• “A Baroque Cell,” David Huerta, Two Lines 2001 (Cells) (2001): 178.
• “Idea for a Naive Tapestry,” “Chair on the Run,” “A Forest, A Ladder,” Antonio José Ponte, Atlanta Review, Vol. VII, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 2001): 52–54.
• “Machinery (I),” “Cancellation of a Contruction Project,” “Light from Parallel Worlds,”
• David Huerta, Atlanta Review, Vol. VII, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 2001): 49–51.
• “The Cannon of Punta Grande,” Néstor Taboada Terán, The Fat Man from La Paz; Contemporary Fiction from Bolivia,, edited by Rosario Santos (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2000).
• “Phone Calls,” Roberto Bolaño, Grand Street, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Winter 1999): 171–175.
• “The Great Baro,” Virgilio Piñera, Dream With No Name; Contemporary Fiction From Cuba, edited by Juana Ponce de León and Esteban Ríos Rivera (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999): 257–251.
• “Small Creatures” (selection from La orfandad del esplendor), Carlos Olivares Baró, Dream With No Name; Contemporary Fiction From Cuba, edited by Juana Ponce de León and Esteban Ríos Rivera (New York: Seven Stories Press 1999): 113–130.
• “Voices of the Water,” Alberto Ruy Sánchez, The Picador Book of Latin American Stories, edited by Carlos Fuentes and Julio Ortega (London: Picador, 1998): 289–298.
• “The One Who Came to Save Me,” Virgilio Piñera, The Picador Book of Latin American Stories, edited by Carlos Fuentes and Julio Ortega (London: Picador, 1998): 29–32.
• “Retrography,” Mauricio Ortega, Two Lines, (Spring, 1998): 181–82.
• Essays by Jorge Mañach Robato, Nicolás Guillén, José Lezama Lima, Álvaro Mutis,
• Gabriel García Márquez, Alejandro Rossi, and Egardo Rodríguez Juliá, The
• Oxford Book of Latin American Essays, edited by Ilan Stavans (New York:
• Oxford University Press, 1997)
• “Meat,” Virgilio Piñera, The Oxford Book of Latin American Stories, edited by Roberto González Echevarría, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997) 327–329.
• “The Balcony,” Francisco Tario, Grand Street, 63 (Winter 1998): 117–123.
• “Shadow and Light in the Desert” (excerpt), Alberto Ruy Sánchez, Review: Latin American Literature and Arts, 55 (Fall 1997): 62–66.
• “Descent” and “Forget,” David Huerta, Review: Latin American Literature and Arts, 55 (Fall 1997): 58–61.
• “The Lights of the World,” Jesús Gardea, TriQuarterly, 99 (Spring/Summer 1997): 92– 98.
• “Springtime,” Jesús Gardea, Seven Hundred Kisses; a Yellow Silk Book of Erotic Writing, edited by Lily Pond (San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 1997) 143–146. Two stories by Juan Bosch, Conjunctions, Vol. 27 (Fall 1996): 135–141.
• "Like the World," Jesús Gardea, New England Review, Vol 17, No. 4, (Fall 1995): 19–21.
• "All the Years of Snow," Jesús Gardea, Indiana Review, Vol. 19, No.1 (Spring 1996): 74–79.
• “Poor Memory,” “Maps,” “Collar Bones,” “A Battle of Romans,” “Triptych after the Flood,” “The Naked Truth,” “Life in the Diamond”, Alberto Blanco, Dawn of the Senses; Selected Poems of Alberto Blanco, edited by Juvenal Acosta, (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1996).
• "Toward the Light: The Poetry of Gloria Gervitz," Mark Schafer, The Literary Review, 38 (1995): 385–387.
• "Tequila: Panegyric and Emblem," Álvaro Mutis, Artes de México, 27 (Nov.–Dec. 1994): 82.
• "So That Hildebrando Pérez Might Learn How to Drink a Shot of Tequila," Efraín Huerta, Artes de México, 27 (Nov.–Dec. 1994): 93.
• "Trinitario," Jesús Gardea, TriQuarterly, 91 (Fall 1994): 46–55.
• "Bucho Vargas, Healer and Medicine Man," Mario González Feo, Costa Rica: A Traveler's Literary Companion, ed. Barbara Ras (San Francisco: Whereabouts Press, 1994).
• "Man Alone," Jesús Gardea, Harvard Review, 7 (Fall 1994): 69–71.
• "One For the Road," Jesús Gardea, Pyramids of Glass; Short Fiction from Modern Mexico, eds. David Bowen and Juan A. Ascencio, (San Antonio: Corona Publishing Company, 1994). “Serial Stories,” “The Memoirs of Mama Blanca in the Personal History of the Author,” and “Testimony,” Mama Blanca’s Memoirs, Teresa de la Parra, translated by Harriet de Onis, UNESCO “Archives” Series (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993).
• "The Art of Reading," Julio Ortega, Antaeus, 70 (1993).
• "The Guitar," Jesús Gardea, New Writing from Mexico, edited by Reginald Gibbons, (Evanston, IL: TriQuarterly Books, 1992): 183–191.
• "The Emanicipation of the Lunatics," Oscar de la Borbolla, New Writing from Mexico, edited by Reginald Gibbons, (Evanston, IL: TriQuarterly Books, 1992): 215–217.
• "Jesus, May My Joy Be Everlasting," Severino Salazar, New Writing from Mexico, edited by Reginald Gibbons, (Evanston, IL: TriQuarterly Books, 1992): 170–181.
• "Voices of the Water," Alberto Ruy Sánchez, New Writing from Mexico, edited by Reginald Gibbons, (Evanston, IL: TriQuarterly Books, 1992): 96–105.

  GRANTS AND AWARDS

• Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to complete translation of poetry by David Huerta (2005)
• Inaugural Residency at the Banff International Literary Translation Centre, to translate the poetry of David Huerta and to work with the author (2003)
• Arlington Arts Council grant for literary translation (1998)
• Massachusetts Cultural Council grant for professional development (literary translation) (1998)
• Robert Fitzgerald Translation Prize (1995)
• Translation Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to translate a collection of stories by Jesús Gardea (1993)
• Translation Grant from the Fund for Culture Mexico-USA to translate a collection of stories by Jesús Gardea (1993)

EDUCATION

• 1998 M.A. in Hispanic Studies, Boston University
• 1987 Graduate translation workshop with Magda Bogin, City College of New York
• 1986 Graduate translation workshop with Gregory Rabassa, New York University
• 1985 B.A. with Honors, College of Letters, Wesleyan University

READINGS, CONFERENCES AND PANELS

• Reader, 15th Annual Spring Reading of The Writers’ Room of Boston, Inc., November 5, 2008,
• The Pierre Menard Gallery, Cambridge, MA
• Reader/Panelist/TranslationWorkshop Leader, Skagit River Poetry Festival 2008, LaConner, WA, May 15–17, 2008
• Lecturer: “Translating Gloria Gervitz’s Migraciones from Spanish While It Was Being Written,” February 23, 2007, Boston University
• Reader (of Huerta translations), 13th Annual Spring Reading of The Writers’ Room of Boston, Inc., June 21, 2006, The Algonquin Club, Boston
• Readings with Gloria Gervitz (Fall 2005): Poet’s House (NYC, 10/28), St. Mark’s Poetry Project (NYC 10/31), Brandeis University (11/1), Simmons College/Center for New Words (11/3), King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center of NYU (NYC, 11/4) (Spring 2006): University of San Diego (3/6), University of California at Santa Barbara (3/7), University of California at Irvine (3/8), Mexican Cultural Institute (Los Angeles, 3/9), Modern Times Bookstore (San Francisco, 3/13), Black Oak Bookstore (Berkeley, 3/14)
• Reading with David Huerta, Banff International Literary Translation Centre, October, 5, 2003
• Reading with Alberto Ruy Sánchez, Brown University (Julio Ortega’s class), October 29, 2002
• Reading with Alberto Ruy Sánchez and Antonio José Ponte (with Dick Cluster and Cola Franzen) at Boston University (Fall 2000)
• Reading with Alberto Ruy Sánchez and tape of Jesús Gardea, ALTA conference, Guadalajara, Dec. 4, 1998
• Reading from Stripping Away the Sorrows From This World, Schoenhof’s Foreign Books, October 29, 1998
• Panelist, “Lecturas/Traducciones/Humor,” at “Latin American Fiction Today” conference at Boston University, November 13, 1997
• Reader, Annual meeting/reading of the Boston Writers’ Room, Inc., The French Library, Boston, MA, Spring 1997
• Bilingual reading with Alberto Ruy Sánchez and Alberto Blanco in the “Other Labyrinths, Other
• Solitudes: Mexican Writing Today” series at the Society of the Americas, New York City, October 31, 1995
• Reader, bilingual reading at Brattleboro bookstore, VT, 1995
• Bilingual readings with Alberto Ruy Sánchez from his novel Los nombres del aire and my translation Mogador at Wellesley College, Harvard, Wesleyan, and Boston Universities, April 19-22, 1994
• Panelist, “Virgilio Piñera: Writing in the Flesh/La escritura en carne y hueso”, (conference)
• University of Chicago, October 15-16, 1993
• Bilingual reading with the Mexican poet Gloria Gervitz from her book Migraciones and my translation at Brown University, sponsored by Providence College, October 13, 1992
• Panelist, “The Cultural Textuality of Translation,” Brown University, October 11, 1991 Reading of original poetry in Spanish as part of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes series "Escritores inéditos" at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, February 27, 1988 TEACHING
• Lecturer in Spanish and Translation and Co-coordinator of the Translation Certificate Program, Hispanic Studies Dept., University of Massachusetts at Boston, 2007–present
• Lecturer in Spanish, Hispanic Studies Dept., University of Massachusetts at Boston, 2007– present
• Teaching Fellow in Spanish at Boston University, 1994–1995
• Faculty member in Humanities, Sudbury Valley School, Framingham, MA, 1993–1994

OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Translation

• Project Translator, International Program, The Museum of Modern Art (NYC), 2003
• Staff translator, Art Nexus/Art in Colombia, 1997–1998

Editorial

• Senior Bilingual Textbook Editor, Baseline Development Group, 2007
• Senior Bilingual Textbook Editor, Houghton Mifflin, 2000–2005
• Bilingual Editor, Houghton Mifflin, 1998–2000
• Bilingual freelance writer/editor, 1988–2004

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• American Literary Translators Association
• New England Translation Association
• Modern Language Association (Representative for Independent Scholars, 1995)
• New England Translator's Group (founding member)
• The Writer's Room of Boston, Inc. (Board of Directors, member)
• National Writers Union

LANGUAGES

• English (native fluency in reading and writing)
• Spanish (near-native fluency in reading and writing)
• Haitian Creole (beginning proficiency in reading and writing)
• Swedish (beginning proficiency in reading and writing)