Pablo Martín Ruiz
Research/Areas of Interest
Twentieth century Latin American fiction; song and songwriting; poetry and poetics; translation studies; Jorge Luis Borges; Oulipo
Education
- PhD Comparative Literature, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
- MA Comparative Literature, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
- Licenciado en Letras, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Biography
I am from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I received training in literature, linguistics, philosophy, and music. I have published articles about contemporary Latin American fiction, song and songwriting, poetry, and translation, among other topics. My book Four Cold Chapters on the Possibility of Literature Leading Mostly to Borges and Oulipo (Dalkey Archive, 2014), explores the concept of "accounts of composition": narratives, real or fictional, about how literary works originate, and the multiple effects those narratives have had throughout history, since classical antiquity until the twentieth century.
In addition to my research, I'm also interested in creative projects. In 2020, I published my first book of creative writing: Caja continua de voces I. It follows a simple concept: it includes texts as different from each other as possible belonging to multiple genres (poems, stories, essays, lists, travel pieces, palindromes, images, etc.). A second volume is forthcoming in 2025.
In 2007, my travel piece "Epifanías del Danubio" won first prize in the literary contest of Fundación El Libro, in Argentina.
In 2011, my short story "El arte del retrato" was a finalist in the literary contest La Felguera, in Spain.
In 2017, fourteen pieces of my creative writing were included, in English and bilingual versions, in 'Festschrift Volume Six. The Oulipo', edited by G.N. Forester and M.J. Nicholls.
In 2018, I wrote a detective story as the curatorial text for artist Claudia Fontes's exhibition The Slow Bird at the 33rd Sao Paulo Biennial of contemporary art. The piece is called "El misterio de cuarto cerrado" (The Locked-Room Mystery) and it can be read in Spanish (or in English or Portuguese translation) at the website of the Bienal de Sao Paulo.
I am a founding member of Outranspo (Ouvroir de translation potencial, a trilingual name meaning "workshop for potential translation"), an international group of writers, translators and scholars devoted to creative and experimental translation. The group currently has fifteen members from six different countries. A dossier in English with work by Outranspo was published in the online literary journal Drunken Boat. The same issue included Outranspo-inspired work by other artists. In French, another dossier was published in the online journal of contemporary literature Remue.net. Outranspo also features in my curatorial fiction "The Locked-Room Mystery" (where, incidentally, all the characters happen to be translators).
I am a founding member—along with visual artist Claudia Fontes and philosopher Paula Fleisner—of La Intermundial Holobiente, an interdisciplinary creative platform at the intersection of contemporary art, philosophy and literature, aiming to explore the relationship, broadly speaking, between the human and the non-human, the many worlds within the world created by everything that exists. In 2022, we presented our project 'El libro de las diez mil cosas' (The Book of the Ten Thousand Things) at the contemporary art exhibition Documenta Fifteen in Kassel, Germany. A two-volume box including the book in English translation, along with a second book about the site where the book was exhibited and the experience of exhibiting it, is forthcoming with German publisher Steidl.
In addition to my research, I'm also interested in creative projects. In 2020, I published my first book of creative writing: Caja continua de voces I. It follows a simple concept: it includes texts as different from each other as possible belonging to multiple genres (poems, stories, essays, lists, travel pieces, palindromes, images, etc.). A second volume is forthcoming in 2025.
In 2007, my travel piece "Epifanías del Danubio" won first prize in the literary contest of Fundación El Libro, in Argentina.
In 2011, my short story "El arte del retrato" was a finalist in the literary contest La Felguera, in Spain.
In 2017, fourteen pieces of my creative writing were included, in English and bilingual versions, in 'Festschrift Volume Six. The Oulipo', edited by G.N. Forester and M.J. Nicholls.
In 2018, I wrote a detective story as the curatorial text for artist Claudia Fontes's exhibition The Slow Bird at the 33rd Sao Paulo Biennial of contemporary art. The piece is called "El misterio de cuarto cerrado" (The Locked-Room Mystery) and it can be read in Spanish (or in English or Portuguese translation) at the website of the Bienal de Sao Paulo.
I am a founding member of Outranspo (Ouvroir de translation potencial, a trilingual name meaning "workshop for potential translation"), an international group of writers, translators and scholars devoted to creative and experimental translation. The group currently has fifteen members from six different countries. A dossier in English with work by Outranspo was published in the online literary journal Drunken Boat. The same issue included Outranspo-inspired work by other artists. In French, another dossier was published in the online journal of contemporary literature Remue.net. Outranspo also features in my curatorial fiction "The Locked-Room Mystery" (where, incidentally, all the characters happen to be translators).
I am a founding member—along with visual artist Claudia Fontes and philosopher Paula Fleisner—of La Intermundial Holobiente, an interdisciplinary creative platform at the intersection of contemporary art, philosophy and literature, aiming to explore the relationship, broadly speaking, between the human and the non-human, the many worlds within the world created by everything that exists. In 2022, we presented our project 'El libro de las diez mil cosas' (The Book of the Ten Thousand Things) at the contemporary art exhibition Documenta Fifteen in Kassel, Germany. A two-volume box including the book in English translation, along with a second book about the site where the book was exhibited and the experience of exhibiting it, is forthcoming with German publisher Steidl.