Antonio Orlando Rodríguez Wins Premio Alfaguara

by Aída Bardales -- Críticas, 3/1/2008 9:04:00 AM

Cuban-born, U.S.-based writer Antonio Orlando Rodríguez is the winner of this year's Premio Alfaguara (Alfaguera Prize) de Novela for his novel Chiquita (“Little One”). The jury highlighted the novel’s “elegan[ce]” and “notable narrative charm and restless imagination.” The annual award from Spain-based Alfaguara (Santillana Publishing Group), which consists of U.S. $175,000, as well as the publication and marketing of the book, is one of the most prestigious in the Spanish language book world. A total of 511 works were considered. This year’s jury included editor Juan González and authors Sergio Ramírez, Ángeles González-Sinde, Jorge Volpi, Guillermo Martínez, and Ray Loriga.

The story, set at the beginning of the 20th century, is based on Espiridiona Cenda, a Cuban singer-dancer who was 26 inches tall. She left Cuba for the United States, where she performed in the circus, vaudeville shows, and other theater, becoming known as “the living doll.” Chiquita, written as an autobiography Cenda dictates to a journalist, reconstructs the extravagant turn-of-the-century world while exploring the intimate drama of an artist who refuses to resign herself to a life of circus freak shows.

Rodríguez has authored the novel Aprendices de brujo (The Last Masquerade, Rayo, 2005) and two books of short stories, Strip-tease and Querido Drácula. He’s also published several children’s and YA titles, including Mi bicicleta es un hada y otros secretos por el estilo, ¡Qué extraños son los terrícolas!, and La maravillosa cámara de Lai-Lai.

Chiquita will be published simultaneously in Spain and Latin America inApril and will be on sale in the United States this May.