Israel Centeno

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IsraelCeenteno

Biography

Israel Centeno (born March 30, 1958, in Caracas) is a Venezuelan writer, linguist, and translator. Renowned for his literary contributions, he has received significant recognition for his work in the field.

Centeno has received various awards, including the National Council of Culture Prize and the Municipal Prize in 1992, both prestigious accolades from his homeland. His literary achievements extend to being a finalist for the Planeta Casa literary award.

Beyond his success in the literary realm, Israel Centeno has made notable contributions as a columnist. He has regularly contributed to prominent Venezuelan newspapers such as El Nacional and El Universal. Additionally, he has collaborated with international publications, including El País in Spain and America 2010.

In acknowledgment of his talent and creativity, Israel Centeno was honored with the Prize for Short Stories in the National Contest organized by El Nacional.

His literary works have gained international recognition with Slovenian, Czech, and English translations.

Currently living in exile in the United States of America, Israel Centeno opted for citizenship due to the impossibility of returning to his homeland.

With a career marked by both national and international acclaim, Israel Centeno continues to make meaningful contributions to literature, language, and cultural dialogue. His multifaceted roles as a writer, linguist, and translator have left an indelible mark on the literary landscape, and his works continue to resonate with readers worldwide.

Israel Centeno remains an active contributor to the literary world, with recent publications through small independent publishers. The unpublished English-language novel, [AGON] is a notable addition to his recent works.

[1] City Paper

Religion

Catholic

Challenges and Experiences in the United States

Despite his notable literary career in Venezuela, Israel Centeno faced challenges upon relocating to the United States. He found himself compelled to work in unrelated fields, a situation not reflective of his established literary background. Despite not securing new publications with major publishing houses in Spain and Venezuela, Centeno has remained active by contributing to small independent publishers.

In the face of exile, the writer sometimes experiences isolation from his audience, as noted by his editors. The impact of this exile on Centeno's career and connection with readers underscores the complexities that writers often face when adapting to new environments.

Recent Work

Centeno has continued to contribute to the literary landscape, with recent works published by small independent publishers. Notable among his recent publications is [provide title and details of a recent work].

In the face of exile, the writer sometimes experiences isolation from his audience, as noted by his editors. The impact of this exile on Centeno's career and connection with readers underscores the complexities that writers often face when adapting to new environments.

In 2020, he was interviewed by Maritza Jiménez, where he revealed, "I have been developing a book about a character I previously explored in 'Bajo las hojas,' Detective Rubén Tenorio, and I plan to start soon a novel for which I have already made some annotations. At the moment, it seems to be a political thriller about kidnappings and espionage."

Currently, Israel Centeno had a residence in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two children, serving as a writer in residence at the City of Asylum.​

Photo: Laura Morales Balza.

1. 1. References

1. About His Work

Words Without Borders

In the formal realm, Centeno's work is associated with the literary structure of the 1990s. He constructs narratives with a keen focus on form, emphasizing his work with imagery while simultaneously crafting plots that never neglect the anecdote. Centeno himself has acknowledged this, stating, "I like to work on aspects such as aridity, grotesque, and sordid situations, but lyricism immediately intervenes. Lyrical investment in language is crucial, giving those twists, incorporating an image. This has a lot to do with what I did in Calletania, a neighborhood novel where there is a full integration of very precise images and metaphors that will shape my voice. Getting into very tough situations, as I did in Bengala, and coming out relatively unscathed is possible due to the resource of imagery" (Centeno 2006b: 12).​

In terms of themes, there is a prevailing reflection on Venezuela, his reluctance towards the modernization process the country has undergone, and his love-hate relationship with the city. Within this, themes like lost illusions are prominent, as well as the presence of nostalgic and melancholic characters. Centeno draws inspiration from Dostoievski and Onetti (portrayal of failure), Liendo (unfulfilled dreams), Poe (irrational terrors), and Ramos Sucre (dark impulses).​

Roberto Echeto, also a Venezuelan writer, remarks about Centeno's work: "Israel's stories tell us that any attempt to classify literature is a foolish exercise. His tales smell of traffic lights, of streets, of lead, of Caracas, our stinking Caracas, but they are also full of hard sex, drugs, cocaine, marijuana, of spiritual indigents, of characters who, with great difficulty, muster the strength to perform some heroic action, of cold and dark bars that are like protective uteri against reality, of performers who resemble Cher, of stone-cold karateka who write comics, of people who cannot live in the light because they would disappear like vampires, of individuals who resemble the neighbor barber, the masseuse, the countryside janitor, or the Colombian mafioso owner of a taxi line who also lives in our building."

Among his publications is "Jinete a Pie," a dystopian novel that tells the story of a man trying to survive in a Caracas that lies in ruins, dominated by motorcyclists. The protagonist, Roberto Morel, a former professor, suffers, like the rest of the characters, from amnesia: little is known with certainty about the past of each individual in the fiction; however, Morel is obsessed with rescuing the memories of his old romances. But "Jinete a Pie" is more than a tale of lost loves. What stands out in the work is the recreation of a decadent universe, where misery and violence prevail.

En la novela, Centeno nos muestra una Caracas baldía, solitaria y en ruinas, sin utilizar los elementos tradicionales de las historias distópicas. Esta ciudad se caracteriza por un sistema de vigilancia de los motorizados, que ahora tienen el control de la ciudad y convirtieron las calles en una prisión para quienes sobreviven en ella, en la que ellos tienen el control total. La ciudad es una selva en la que los peatones son la víctima. Estos jinetes motorizados se dedican a acosar y matar a los que no piensan como ellos.​ Eduardo Casanova Sucre comments on this text: "I have just finished reading the novel 'Jinete a Pie' by Israel Centeno, published by Editorial Lector Cómplice. It is an excellent, original, well-conceived, well-written novel. Truly impressive. This should be sufficient to place Centeno among the best novelists in the Spanish language. Unfortunately, the author was not born in Spain, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, or Colombia but in Venezuela, condemning him to unjust ostracism. Success in today's global literary landscape often requires recognition in one's home country first. In Venezuela, there is a lack of literary criticism, and the success of a writer is not tolerated. Like a few privileged individuals, Israel will achieve posthumous success, but a select few of us will acknowledge him in life as a great novelist."

In his book 'Criaturas de la Noche,' Centeno writes seven short stories set against the backdrop of El Ávila, weaving tales dripping with pure terror and despair. To kick off the collection, Centeno draws readers in with lines from the work of Cumana writer José Antonio Ramos Sucre as an epigraph. The first story, also titled 'Criaturas de la Noche,' introduces a portal with a yellow dog as its guiding thread. "Yes, a yellow dog, warty and skinny."​

El complot narrates how the communist monarchy clings to power and has created a nightmare from which one cannot wake up, as nights are no longer nights and days are no longer days because there are no calendars. Like zombies, people are divided into two groups: one trying to string together meanings and another tied to phones trying to communicate with God or the devil. The family, pursued by suspicion, has had to disappear from the map, corroborating part of an assassination that only exists in the imagination of an individual who was left to observe from walls and buildings. Because of this, we see how the inhabitants of the devastated territory have considered resolving politics through an attack on anyone who feels like a messiah, prophet, god, or tyrant of a society that detests them. Knowing they are detested, they pursue, corner, capture, torture, and kill.

The narrative records, through characters whose reality reflects desires aborted by power, the preparation, from the very heart of power, of an attack against an individual who claims to be the president of a country. The woven narrative, crafted with threads that reveal an understanding of the language of conspiracy, reveals that the Ministry of Political and Police Security has prepared the plot, and the operators of this event are part of the same machinery of that power. This novel was the cause of his exile, as after its publication, he received death threats.​ </ref>

[2] International Thrills: Israel Centeno

Published Books

• Calletania (1992). Monte Ávila Editores. Caracas, Venezuela
• El rabo del diablo y otros cuentos (1993). Grupo Editorial Eclepsidra. Caracas, Venezuela
• Hilo de Cometa y otras iniciaciones (1996). Editorial Planeta Venezolana
• Exilio en Bowery (1999). Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, New Jersey. USA
• Criaturas de la noche (2000). Short Stories. Editorial Alfaguara. Caracas, Venezuela
• El Complot (2002). Novel. Alfadil. Caracas, Venezuela
• La Casa del Dragón (2004). Novel. Alfadil, Caracas, Venezuela
• Bengala (2005). Novel. Grupo Editorial Norma. Caracas, Venezuela
• Iniciaciones (2006). Novel. Editorial Periférica, Cáceres, Spain
• Retrato de George Dyer (2007) (included in the reissue of Hilo de Cometa). Novella, Periférica, Cáceres, Spain
• Calletania. Novel. Reissue in Spain. Editorial Periférica, Cáceres, Spain
• Bajo las hojas (2010). Novel. Editorial Alfaguara, Caracas
• Criaturas de la Noche Reissue (2011). Punto de Lectura. Editorial Alfaguara, Caracas
• Bamboo City (2012). Wild Age Press. Bilingual Edition, Pennsylvania. USA
• Según pasan los años´ (2012) Sudaquia Editores. New York, N.Y. US
• La Casa del Dragón (2013) Sudaquia Editores. New York, N.Y. US
• Pasaje de Ida, Anthology of writers in exile. Compiler: Silda Cordoliani. Alfa Grupo Editorial, Caracas 2013
• The Conspiracy (El Complot) English translation by Guillermo Parra (2014) Sampsonia Way. Pittsburgh. PA. US
• Jinete a Pie. Editorial Lector Cómplice. Caracas 2014. Venezuela [3] [4] La distopía del presente: apuntes sobre Jinete a pie
• Bamboo City Second Edition (2014). Wild Age Press. Bilingual Edition. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. USA
• "Jinete a Pie" Second Edition (2015). Editorial Lector Cómplice. Caracas, Venezuela
• La Marianne (2015) Sudaquia Editores. New York. NY. US
• "The Conspiracy" (2017) Phoneme Media, Los Angeles, Ca. US
• "The Conspiracy" (2018) [5] Deep Vellum TX, US
• El Arreo de los Vientos (2020)

Translations

• Gordon Lish, Perú, (translation by Israel Centeno) Editorial Periférica, Cáceres, 2010

• Fenimore Woolson El Jardín/Constance (translation by Israel Centeno) Editorial Periférica, Cáceres, 2011

• Mary Cholmodeley Un inconveniente (translation by Israel Centeno) Editorial Periférica, Cáceres, 2011

• Ernest Dowson Diario de un hombre de éxito (translation by Israel Centeno) Periférica, Cáceres, 201

Referencias

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