Felix Calvino's Blog, page 9
June 20, 2014
Bumf - Short Story
June 21, 2014
Kneading the dough
This week Bumf brings you a beautiful piece from Felix Calvino about a mother and son making bread together …
http://bumf.com.au/article.php?id=68
www.bunf.com.au
Australian Literature Reading Group
June 20, 2014
Australian Literature Reading Group
The Australian Literature Reading Group will meet on Friday 2 May and room allocation will depend on numbers. During the year we will read an eclectic array of Australian literature, and brief introductions to the authors and their texts may be given by interested persons involved. Members of the reading group will decide the upcoming text on a month-to-month basis. The book for this month is Felix Calvino's Alfonso.
To be placed on the email list, or if you have any enquiries, please email Kirril Shields (shieldskirril@hotmail.com
School of English, Media Studies and Art History, University of Queensland.
June 1, 2014
Radio Galega - Interview I Rodríguez
June 2, 2014
Expreso de medianoite do día: 01/06/2014
Entrevista Victoria Rodríguez
Félix CalviñoEscritor galego que leva case 40 anos vivindo en Australia
http://www.crtvg.es/rg/programas/expreso-de-medianoita
http://www.crtvg.es/rg/a-carta/expreso-de-medianoite-expreso-de-medianoite-do-dia-01-06-2014-826364
Expreso de medianoite do día: 01/06/2014
Entrevista Victoria Rodríguez
Félix CalviñoEscritor galego que leva case 40 anos vivindo en Australia
http://www.crtvg.es/rg/programas/expreso-de-medianoita
http://www.crtvg.es/rg/a-carta/expreso-de-medianoite-expreso-de-medianoite-do-dia-01-06-2014-826364
May 30, 2014
QAGOMA - Meet the Author
May 31, 2014
QAGOMA MEMBERS QUEENSLAND WEEK PROGRAM
MEET THE AUTHOR: FÉLIX CALVINOFriday 6 June | 3.30pmMembers Lounge, QAG
Join us for a special event during Queensland Week with local author Félix Calvino as he offers insights into his recently published novella, Alfonso (2014). Members may recall Calvino's beautifully written collection of show stories,A Hatful of herries (2007), featured on the members Book Club list during 'Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado' in late 2012. Local author and academic Venero Armanno describes Calvino's new work as 'a gentle yet searching exploration of a Spanish migrant's feelings and experiences in the country Australia used to be more than 40 years ago. Félix Calvino infuses the stuff of everyday life with tenderness and magic.'
Bookings required / $15 Members / $20 Members' guests / Includes coffee tea and cake / Book online or call (07) 3840 7278 to RSVP by 5 Junehttp://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/programs/current_and_upcoming/queensland_week_2014
QAGOMA MEMBERS QUEENSLAND WEEK PROGRAM
MEET THE AUTHOR: FÉLIX CALVINOFriday 6 June | 3.30pmMembers Lounge, QAG
Join us for a special event during Queensland Week with local author Félix Calvino as he offers insights into his recently published novella, Alfonso (2014). Members may recall Calvino's beautifully written collection of show stories,A Hatful of herries (2007), featured on the members Book Club list during 'Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado' in late 2012. Local author and academic Venero Armanno describes Calvino's new work as 'a gentle yet searching exploration of a Spanish migrant's feelings and experiences in the country Australia used to be more than 40 years ago. Félix Calvino infuses the stuff of everyday life with tenderness and magic.'
Bookings required / $15 Members / $20 Members' guests / Includes coffee tea and cake / Book online or call (07) 3840 7278 to RSVP by 5 Junehttp://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/programs/current_and_upcoming/queensland_week_2014
La Voz de Galicia - Interview I Rodri Garcia
May 30, 2014
«A vida do emigrante, ata certo punto, é fantasía e realidade»
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/ocioycultura/2014/05/19/vida-do-emigrante-ata-certo-punto-e-fantasia-realidade/0003_201405G19P30991.htm
Radio Interview I Giráldez
May 30, 2014
EL SABADO LIBROFelix Calviño, escritor gallego en lengua inglesa
Radio ObradoiroFelix Calviño, escritor gallego en lengua inglesaUNA ENTREVISTA DE JOSÉ MIGUEL GIRÁLDEZ | 24.05.2014 A- A+Félix Calviño lleva más de treinta años en Australia. Aunque en su vida se ha dedicado a múltiples actividades, en la última década ha logrado su gran sueño: convertirse en escritor. Publicó en 2007 A Hatful of Cherries (Un sombrero lleno de cerezas), una espléndida colección de cuentos en torno a su vida en Galicia antes de la emigración. Este año ha visto la luz en Arcadia una novela, Alfonso, que narra la vida de un emigrante que llega a las grandes ciudades industriales de Australia después de salir de su aldea, en Galicia, a los 22 años, en medio de la pobreza del franquismo. Esta es, en parte, la historia de Félix Calviño, que prepara ahora una nueva colección de cuentos. Félix Calviño nació en Alemparte, Lalín. Hacía catorce años que no visitaba Galicia. Escuche la entrevista con Félix Calviño en 'El sábado libro'.http://www.elcorreogallego.es/tendencias/ecg/felix-calvino-escritor-gallego-lengua-inglesa/idEdicion-2014-05-24/idNoticia-870620/
EL SABADO LIBROFelix Calviño, escritor gallego en lengua inglesa
Radio ObradoiroFelix Calviño, escritor gallego en lengua inglesaUNA ENTREVISTA DE JOSÉ MIGUEL GIRÁLDEZ | 24.05.2014 A- A+Félix Calviño lleva más de treinta años en Australia. Aunque en su vida se ha dedicado a múltiples actividades, en la última década ha logrado su gran sueño: convertirse en escritor. Publicó en 2007 A Hatful of Cherries (Un sombrero lleno de cerezas), una espléndida colección de cuentos en torno a su vida en Galicia antes de la emigración. Este año ha visto la luz en Arcadia una novela, Alfonso, que narra la vida de un emigrante que llega a las grandes ciudades industriales de Australia después de salir de su aldea, en Galicia, a los 22 años, en medio de la pobreza del franquismo. Esta es, en parte, la historia de Félix Calviño, que prepara ahora una nueva colección de cuentos. Félix Calviño nació en Alemparte, Lalín. Hacía catorce años que no visitaba Galicia. Escuche la entrevista con Félix Calviño en 'El sábado libro'.http://www.elcorreogallego.es/tendencias/ecg/felix-calvino-escritor-gallego-lengua-inglesa/idEdicion-2014-05-24/idNoticia-870620/
May 6, 2014
Alfonso - Review I Holland
May 8, 2014
Félix Calvino’s short novel tells the story of a young man who moves to Australia to escape Franco’s Spain. The strange thing about the book (given that its author has spent so long in Australia) is how unlike contemporary Australian literature it is. David Malouf has championed Calvino, but then there has always been something essentially Mediterranean about the author of Ransom. Flaubert was uncompromising in his belief that the author’s opinions and even ideas should remain absent from a work of literary art. If the French master thought the novel of ideas was a degraded thing, what would he have thought of the Australian ‘novel of issues’, the books (we all know them) that might have been written off the back of an episode of Q&A. Alfonso bolsters no Australian cultural myths, nor does it succumb to the equally tiresome genre that is ‘myth debunking’.
Calvino never reveals himself to be so much a writer of foreign sensibilities as in his concern with Australia rather than Australianness. Alfonso is a work of art rather than of ideology. Its subjects are homelessness and belonging, love and estrangement. The lines with which Calvino sketches his habitually, even wilfully lonely immigrant man and his Australian romantic interest, Nancy, are as broad and hard as those in Goya’s etchings, yet there is a quiet quality about the book, and in the spaces between the words you feel the presence of deep running waters. Says the principal character, ‘Beyond the plane was the universe itself, nicely lit by uncountable stars for which, like his feelings, he had no names.’
Calvino’s book paints rather than explains. It has nothing to instruct you in. Like all true art, it invites you into an experience, one well worthwhile.
Patrick Holland
Afonso - Australian Book Reviewhttps://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr.../.
Félix Calvino’s short novel tells the story of a young man who moves to Australia to escape Franco’s Spain. The strange thing about the book (given that its author has spent so long in Australia) is how unlike contemporary Australian literature it is. David Malouf has championed Calvino, but then there has always been something essentially Mediterranean about the author of Ransom. Flaubert was uncompromising in his belief that the author’s opinions and even ideas should remain absent from a work of literary art. If the French master thought the novel of ideas was a degraded thing, what would he have thought of the Australian ‘novel of issues’, the books (we all know them) that might have been written off the back of an episode of Q&A. Alfonso bolsters no Australian cultural myths, nor does it succumb to the equally tiresome genre that is ‘myth debunking’.
Calvino never reveals himself to be so much a writer of foreign sensibilities as in his concern with Australia rather than Australianness. Alfonso is a work of art rather than of ideology. Its subjects are homelessness and belonging, love and estrangement. The lines with which Calvino sketches his habitually, even wilfully lonely immigrant man and his Australian romantic interest, Nancy, are as broad and hard as those in Goya’s etchings, yet there is a quiet quality about the book, and in the spaces between the words you feel the presence of deep running waters. Says the principal character, ‘Beyond the plane was the universe itself, nicely lit by uncountable stars for which, like his feelings, he had no names.’
Calvino’s book paints rather than explains. It has nothing to instruct you in. Like all true art, it invites you into an experience, one well worthwhile.
Patrick Holland
Afonso - Australian Book Reviewhttps://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr.../.
May 5, 2014
Alfonso – Review I Lindquist
May 5, 2014
Having had the pleasure of discovering Félix Calvino’s collection of short stories published as A Hatful of Cherriesin 2007, I was drawn to this novella, which is his latest publication.
It is 1962, Alfonso is 22 and alone, having fled a life of rural poverty in Franco’s Spain. He has sacrificed all he knows for the chance of a better life in Sydney where he understands little of the language, customs or rules of social engagement. He struggles with loneliness but is determined to fit in, find love and build a future. He’s a serious young man but he has a self-deprecating sense of humour and quiet sense of gratitude on his side.
Calvino, himself a Spanish migrant, knows this journey firsthand and reveals it through vignettes that are deceptively simple, often funny, sometimes disturbing, but which always have heart. We walk the streets of Sydney with Alfonso. Renovating his dilapidated terrace house in Surry Hills becomes a metaphor for replacing the old with the new, and we share Alfonso’s hope that with the nest lovingly prepared, the woman of his dreams will make herself known.
Timeless and keenly observed, the story weaves back and forth between the two versions of Alfonso that co-exist and which he knows always will: one that connects him inextricably to the past and the other that beckons him towards an unknown yet hopeful future.
A very worthy read.
Jill LindquistCoorparoo, QLD
http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/
Having had the pleasure of discovering Félix Calvino’s collection of short stories published as A Hatful of Cherriesin 2007, I was drawn to this novella, which is his latest publication.
It is 1962, Alfonso is 22 and alone, having fled a life of rural poverty in Franco’s Spain. He has sacrificed all he knows for the chance of a better life in Sydney where he understands little of the language, customs or rules of social engagement. He struggles with loneliness but is determined to fit in, find love and build a future. He’s a serious young man but he has a self-deprecating sense of humour and quiet sense of gratitude on his side.
Calvino, himself a Spanish migrant, knows this journey firsthand and reveals it through vignettes that are deceptively simple, often funny, sometimes disturbing, but which always have heart. We walk the streets of Sydney with Alfonso. Renovating his dilapidated terrace house in Surry Hills becomes a metaphor for replacing the old with the new, and we share Alfonso’s hope that with the nest lovingly prepared, the woman of his dreams will make herself known.
Timeless and keenly observed, the story weaves back and forth between the two versions of Alfonso that co-exist and which he knows always will: one that connects him inextricably to the past and the other that beckons him towards an unknown yet hopeful future.
A very worthy read.
Jill LindquistCoorparoo, QLD
http://www.goodreadingmagazine.com.au/
April 10, 2014
Alfonso – Review I SKLAVOS
April 11, 2014
“I passed the wine bottle, and Raul said he was looking forward to the skinning and butchering of our bounty. In all the excitement, we didn't notice that the sky had gone dark until the wind and rain suddenly started hammering the car. Before long, we were merely crawling along, very much like we are now. The car started shuddering, and Salvador said the engine was no good in the wet. A while later, we noticed that people were staring at us, some even blowing their horns. Raul told Salvador not to take any notice of the people, just drive. It was only when the tape finished playing and the rain eased that we heard the sheep bleating in the boot.” (Alfonso, pp.58 -59).
Félix Calvino takes the everyday and blends it with humour, nostalgia and meaning. The protagonist Alfonso is a strong, engaging character who will stay with you long after you finish this fluid novella. By following his journey from Spain to Australia, and subsequent life there, you will catch glimpses of the two countries and the interesting space that Alfonso occupies. By the time he holds his house-warming party, you will ache to be amongst the aromas and laughter emanating from the place. But despite the distraction, Alfonso’s loneliness will seep into your pores and make you wonder what it means to be at home and to have a home.
Jacqueline SKLAVOS
France
“I passed the wine bottle, and Raul said he was looking forward to the skinning and butchering of our bounty. In all the excitement, we didn't notice that the sky had gone dark until the wind and rain suddenly started hammering the car. Before long, we were merely crawling along, very much like we are now. The car started shuddering, and Salvador said the engine was no good in the wet. A while later, we noticed that people were staring at us, some even blowing their horns. Raul told Salvador not to take any notice of the people, just drive. It was only when the tape finished playing and the rain eased that we heard the sheep bleating in the boot.” (Alfonso, pp.58 -59).
Félix Calvino takes the everyday and blends it with humour, nostalgia and meaning. The protagonist Alfonso is a strong, engaging character who will stay with you long after you finish this fluid novella. By following his journey from Spain to Australia, and subsequent life there, you will catch glimpses of the two countries and the interesting space that Alfonso occupies. By the time he holds his house-warming party, you will ache to be amongst the aromas and laughter emanating from the place. But despite the distraction, Alfonso’s loneliness will seep into your pores and make you wonder what it means to be at home and to have a home.
Jacqueline SKLAVOS
France
