MUJIKA IRAOLA, Inazio

(Donostia, 1963)

"I was born in Donostia in 1963, four days before somebody shot President Kennedy. So it wasn't me. I completed my Teacher's Certificate and got my degree in Basque philology. For the most part, I have written short stories. Some have appeared in my books; others have not. My first collection came out in 1987: Azukrea belazeetan (Sugar on the Prairie). This strange title is a metaphor for snow, and snow itself is a metaphor for my first homeland: childhood. My story Linkon (1991), published as part of a series for children, didn't appear in this collection though now I think perhaps it belongs there. I am so fond of legends that those that exist seem too few and I made up new ones for my book Hautsaren kronika, published in 1994. War has always seemed to me to be the perfect theater for examining the light and darkness of human character. Any war will do, but since it was most familiar to me, I began to write fiction about the Spanish Civil War and the period of the German occupation of France. My first offering was the story that appears here, Itoak ur azalera bezala (1992), which I had intended to be the seed of a larger collection. The same was true of my short book Matriuska (1995), which is comprised of only three stories. My last book to date is Gerezi denbora (Cherry Season, 1999); they say it's a novel, but I consider it a long story. I turned in the proofs of this book to the publisher one day, and that night my twins were born, a boy and a girl; a good harvest for the season so to speak. You will certainly understand why I haven't written more since then.

I work as an editor. In 1993, I founded the publishing house Alberdania with my friend Jorge Gimenez. I am also a scriptwriter, and I wrote the script for the cartoon film Karramarro Uhartea (2000, Goya prize winner) with Joxean Muņoz. I've done other things as well, but I won't mention everything here."

(Mujika Iraola, I., "Biography", in An Antology of Basque Short Stories, Center for Basque Studies - University of Nevada, 2004).


"The poetic prose of Inazio Mujika Iraola likewise has a truly lyrical tone. In his 1987 book Azukrea belazeetan (Sugar on the Prairie), we see the influence of South American magic realism and particularly that of J. Rulfo. This type of realism is captivating, not only in many neoruralist Basque novels of the time, but also in other short stories worthy of mention (I. Zurutuza's 1989 story Haizeak iparlaino beltzak dakartzanean, When the wind brings the cold northern fog, for example), and the fantasy found in Basque oral tradition put us in the limelight. This narrative makes possible a way of visiting our past, a way of recapturing an identity denied us for years. And given that memory has become the primary obsession of modern Basque novelists (see Ramon Saizarbitoria's Gorde nazazu lurpean (2002, Leave Me In the Earth), for example), it is no surprise to see the importance of memory in the works of Mujika Iraola. The fiction that arises from mixing legends and Borgesian expertise is the basis of his collection of stories Hautsaren Kronika (1994, Chronicle of Dust). In the story we chose for this anthology, Like the waters release their dead, dramatic memories from the time of WWII rise to the surface, very slowly."

(Olaziregi, M.J., "Foreword", in An Anthology of Basque Short Stories, University of Nevada - Center for Basque Studies, Reno, 2004).


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Š Photo: Zaldi Ero