The Modern Novel

Biography

A. G. Porta (Antoni García Porta) was born in Barcelona in 1954. His early writing was in the form of poetry under the pseudonym of Kithoue, appearing in an anthology of Barcelona poets called Algunos poetas en Barcelona [Some Poets in Barcelona] (link in Spanish). His next appearance was a joint novel with Roberto Bolaño, the first novel for both writers, called Consejos de un discípulo de Morrison a un fanático de Joyce [Advice from a Disciple of Morrison and a Fan of Joyce]. (Note that this novel has been translated into French and Italian but not English.) The title is a play on the title of the poem Consejos de un discípulo de Marx a un fanático de Heidegger by the Mexican poet Mario Santiago Papasquiaro. Morrison refers to Jim Morrison (lead singer of The Doors) and Joyce, of course, to James Joyce.

At this point, Porta gave up literature and worked for a text book publisher. Bolaño asked him to be involved in his work Literatura nazi en América (Nazi Literature in the Americas) but Porta declined. Fifteen years later, however, he published Braudel por Braudel [Braudel by Braudel] and he went on to publish other novels, only one of which has been translated into English. The character of Professor Antoni Carrera in Bolaño’s posthumously published Los sinsabores del verdadero policía (Woes of the True Policeman) is based on Porta.

Other sites

A. G. Porta
Interview
A. G. Porta (in Spanish)