Cristian Crusat
WINNER
WINNER
Biography
Cristian Crusat Schretzmeijer was born in Spain in 1983, the son of a Spanish father and a Dutch mother, being himself both Spanish and Dutch. Crusat received his M.A. in Literature Studies from the Complutense University of Madrid and his M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the International University Menéndez Pelayo of Santander and the Cervantes Institute. Additionally, he has completed his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Amsterdam.
He has lived in France, Morocco and the Netherlands. Crusat is the author of Estatuas (Pre-Textos, 2006) Tranquilos en tiempo de guerra (Pre-Textos, 2010) and Breve teoría del viaje y el desierto (Pre-Textos, 2011). In 2010, Crusat was awarded the Manuel Llano Internacional Prize. He has seen his essays, translations and articles on literature published in a wide range of Spanish and Latin American journals, such as Revista de Occidente, Letra Internacional, Punto de partida and RevistAtlántica. Cristian Crusat also edited and translated El deseo de lo único. Teoría de la ficción, the critical essays of the French writer Marcel Schwob (Páginas de Espuma, 2012). He teaches the Spanish language and literature abroad.
Nominated book : Breve teoría del viaje y el desierto (Brief theory of travel and the desert)
Summary
The six stories of Breve teoría del viaje y el desierto contemplate the full range of human experience. They take us on a journey around the world, from the arid landscapes of the Mediterranean coast to the work of the brilliant Serbian writer, Milorad Pavić. All of the characters are waiting for, searching for, or exploring the possibility of a revelation which never appears in their numbed here-and-now. And yet, paradoxically, they seem incapable of taking any kind of effective action, with the possible exception of Lena, who writes from the floating world of dreams. As Sufi mysticism tells us, the soul craves change, and immobility can feel like a slow death that can creep up anywhere: turning up on roads, in deserted parking lots or hotels packed with tourists (the desert of the modern world). However, fate or mere chance (an irrelevant incident, someone fainting on a nudist beach, a plane crash that never actually happened) can reveal in a flash the true face of a character’s isolation.
Thanks to an extraordinarily versatile prose, a nomadic style, which adapts to the different spiritual, physical or imaginary locations of each story and to the fragile individuality of their inhabitants, Crusat guides these buffeted characters through the abyss of fears, self-doubt and desires which make up the modern world.
Excerpts
Related publications
EUPL Retrospective Box
Various authors
EUPL Anthology 2013
Various authors