City of Rats

Born in Buenos Aires in 1939, Raul Damonte Botana derived his sobriquet Copi from a nickname his grandmother gave him, "copita de nieve," or "little snowflake." At 17, he went into exile in Haiti, Uruguay, and New York before finally settling in Paris, where he was a cartoonist, performer, playwright, and novelist. In his own words, Copi was "an amoral commentator, brilliantly ignorant, who writes about sex with unusual violence." He died of an AIDS-related illness in 1987. Poet, translator, and book designer Kit Schluter lives in Mexico City. He is author of the short story collection Cartoons, and his acclaimed translations from the French and Spanish include books by Rafael Bernal, bruno dario, Felisberto Hernandez, and Marcel Schwob.

Cesar Aira was born in Coronel Pringles, Argentina in 1949, and has lived in Buenos Aires since 1967. He taught at the University of Buenos Aires (about Copi and Rimbaud) and at the University of Rosario (Constructivism and Mallarme), and has translated and edited books from France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela. Perhaps one of the most prolific writers in Argentina, and certainly one of the most talked about in Latin America, Aira has published more than 100 books to date in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Spain, which have been translated for France, Great Britain, Italy, Brazil, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Romania, Russia, and the United States. One novel, La prueba, has been made into a feature film, and How I Became a Nun was chosen as one of Argentina's ten best books. Besides essays and novels Aira writes regularly for the Spanish newspaper El Pais. In addition to winning the 2021 Formentor Prize, he has received a Guggenheim scholarship, and was shortlisted for the Romulo Gallegos prize and the Booker International Prize.