Artículo en inglés sobre Netamorfosis en la revista literaria Molosus

 

Netamorfosis: Cuentos de Tepito y Otros Barrios Imarginados, El Sótano de los Olvidados (Editorial Sur +, Avra Ediciones)

In their first Spanish-only title, Editorial Sur+, one of the most cosmopolitan and interesting young publishing houses in Mexico, anthologizes short fiction by members of the Mexico City writers co-op El Sótano de los Olvidados, which unites writers from several marginalized neighborhoods of that unfathomable city. The collection contains stories by Primo Mendoza and Umberto Vallejo, as well as “Cuento de pachucos y de penas, by Mario Puga begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, a story in photos about a drunk pachuco that gets arrested. Recent Sur + poetry titles include Juan Felipe Herrera’s bilingual Los vampiros de Whittier Boulevard and Tom Raworth’s El tiempo se volvió cuero, translated with grace by Sur + editor and poet Gabriela Jauregui. Both those and Netamorfosis are testament to the great work done by Sur +, the latter the great work by El Sótano. I look forward to the next volume in their Colección Imarginalia, which showcases work from marginalized voices,”from wherever they rise.”  Sur + is a press as ideologically engaged as the work they publish. Their copyright page reads:

Se permite la copia, ya sea de uno o más cuentos completos de esta obra o del conjunto de la edición, en cualquier formato, siempre y cuando no se haga con fines de lucro, no se modifique el contenido de los textos y cite al autor y a la editorial.

It is permitted to copy, be it one or more complete stories from this work or from the assembly of this edition, in any format, so long as no profit is sought, no modification is made to the content of the texts and the author and publisher are appropriately cited.

It makes sense to include in a book written by a writers’ co-op that practical engagement with the contemporary publishing industry, and it’s nice to see a forward-thinking press grappling with audience, distribution, and profit, something important not just in the Mexican context.

DS