Roberto Ransom

Roberto Ransom was born in Mexico City to a second-generation Irish American family that emigrated to Mexico. For his undergraduate education, Ransom applied to the National Autonomous University of Mexico where he studied dramatic literature and theater at the School of Philosophy and Letters. His time there introduced him to the artistic world of Mexico during the La Decada Perdida of the 1980s.

After nearly a decade of working as a journalist and writer,{{Cite web|title=Roberto Ransom: Detalle del autor |website=Enciclopedia de la Literatura en México |publisher=FLM – CONACULTA |url=http://www.elem.mx/autor/datos/901|access-date=2021-02-15}} Ransom received a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholarship and studied for a M.A. and a PhD degree in theology, ethics, and culture at the University of Virginia in the late 1990s.{{Cite web|last=Congress|first=The Library of|title=LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)|url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n93018161.html|access-date=2021-02-15|website=id.loc.gov}} Afterwards, he returned to Mexico to write and teach at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua.

At the School of Philosophy and Letters, and during his early career, Roberto Ransom formed close friendships with other young writers such as Ana García Bergua,{{Cite web|title=Roberto Ransom. De grietas y colapsos|url=https://www.revistadelauniversidad.mx/articles/ab336689-1cdc-49c0-be25-e49dd9d87dc9/roberto-ransom-de-grietas-y-colapsos|access-date=2021-02-15|website=Revista de la Universidad de México}} Tedi López Mills, Ignacio Padilla,{{Cite web|last=Nacional|first=El Universal, México, Compañía Periodística|title=No me imagino no escribiendo: Ignacio Padilla {{!}} Confabulario {{!}} Suplemento cultural|url=https://confabulario.eluniversal.com.mx/no-me-imagino-no-escribiendo/|access-date=2021-02-15|language=es-ES}} and Jennifer Clement.This generation of writers discovered beyond magic realism through work that was only implicitly related to Mexico or Latin America. Instead, it placed emphasis on experimentation and structure by using polyphonic and nonlinear narratives, as well as unreliable narrators, and usage of Mexican Spanish. Ransom's work is unique in that it can also be read as simultaneously relating to the foreign experience in Mexico, and to foreign realities experienced through a subtle but uniquely Mexican sensibility.

Ransom's work is also influenced by English and American Gothic writing traditions. His writing has been described as "clear, pellucid writing for dark and tortuous stories" by American translator Edith Grossman,{{Cite book|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo26506194.html|title=Missing Persons, Animals, and Artists}} who went on to describe this tension as "a devastating contrast between substance and style". His writing has also been regarded as charming,{{Cite news|last=SMITH|first=ALEXANDER McCALL|date=2007-01-28|title=Big Cats (Published 2007)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/books/review/McCall_Smith.t.html|access-date=2021-02-15|issn=0362-4331}} subtle and refined, with emotionally deep characters and insights.{{Cite web|title=Missing Persons, Animals, and Artists - Roberto Ransom|url=https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/mexico/ransomr2.htm|access-date=2021-02-15|website=www.complete-review.com}} Ransom's writing is known for focusing on building atmosphere and ideas,seldom relying on sharp twists or outsized action.{{Cite book|url=https://static.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/roberto-ransom/a-tale-of-two-lions/|title=A TALE OF TWO LIONS {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|language=en}}

Both his novel Tale of Two Lions (Norton 2007),{{Cite web|title=A Tale of Two Lions|url=https://wwnorton.com/|access-date=2021-02-15|website=wwnorton.com|language=en}} and the collection of short stories Missing Persons, Animals, and Artists (Swan Isle Press/University of Chicago 2018),{{Cite book|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo26506194.html|title=Missing Persons, Animals, and Artists}} have been translated and published in English.{{Cite web|title=Roberto Ransom's A Tale of Two Lions by Carmen Boullosa - BOMB Magazine|url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/roberto-ransoms-a-tale-of-two-lions/|access-date=2021-02-15|website=bombmagazine.org}} Missing Persons, Animals, and Artists has enjoyed critical acclaim for its translation by Daniel Shapiro, {{Cite web|date=2018-10-17|title=Missing Persons, Animals, and Artists by Roberto Ransom|url=https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2018/november/missing-persons-animals-and-artists-roberto-ransom|access-date=2021-02-15|website=World Literature Today|language=en}} who was awarded grants by PEN America,{{Cite web|date=2009-05-04|title=PEN Translation Fund Announces Its 2009 Grant Recipients|url=https://pen.org/press-release/pen-translation-fund-announces-its-2009-grant-recipients/|access-date=2021-02-15|website=PEN America|language=en}} and the National Endowment for the Arts for its completion.

• Ransom Roberto. En esa otra tierra, Alianza Editorial (Mexico City), 1991. {{ISBN|9789683903648}}
• Ransom Roberto. Historia de dos leones, Ediciones El Aduanero (Naucalpan, Mexico), 1994. {{ISBN|9789687517001}}
• Ransom Roberto. Saludos a la Familia, Universidad Autónoma de México, (Toluca, Mexico) 1995. {{ISBN|9789688352816}}
• Ransom Roberto. Chanterelle, Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura, (Toluca, Mexico) 1997. {{ISBN|9789684843585}}
• Ransom Roberto. Desaparecidos, animales y artistas, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Mexico City, Mexico), 1999. {{ISBN|9789701838440}}
• Ransom Roberto. La línea del agua, Joaquín Mortiz (México City), 1999. {{ISBN|9789682707681}}
• Ransom Roberto. Te guardaré la espalda, Joaquín Mortiz (México City), 2002. {{ISBN|9789682708756}}
• Ransom Roberto. Museo Marino, Instituto Chihuahuense de la Cultura (Chihuahua), 2004. {{ISBN|9789686862898}}
• Ransom Roberto. Los días sin Bárbara, Instituto Chihuahuense de la Cultura (Chihuahua), 2006. {{ISBN|9789707740273}}
• Ransom Roberto. João y el oso Antártica, Alfaguara Infantil (Mexico City), 2006. {{ISBN|9789681914370}}
• Reid Jasper (translator) A Tale of Two Lions: A Novel, Norton (New York, NY), 2007. {{ISBN|9780393329360}}
• Ransom Roberto. Vidas Colapsadas, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Mexico City), 2012. {{ISBN|9786074559064}}
• Ransom Roberto. Carlos y los Objetos Perdidos, Alfaguara Infantil (Mexico City), 2012. {{ISBN|978-6071115935}}
• Ransom Roberto. La casa desertada: Graham Greene en México, Aldus Matadero (Mexico City),2017. {{ISBN|9786079757038}}
• Shapiro, Daniel (translator) Missing Persons Animals and Artists, Swan Isle Press (Chicago), 2018. {{ISBN|9780997228717}}

Roberto Ransom is married and has three children. He currently lives in Chihuahua, Mexico, where he is a tenured professor at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua.{{Cite web|title=Roberto Ransom|url=https://www.educal.com.mx/elenagarro/calendario/member/roberto-ransom/|access-date=2021-02-15|website=Elena Garro|language=es-MX}}

• List of Mexican writers
• Irish immigration to Mexico

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2018/november/missing-persons-animals-and-artists-roberto-ransom World Literature Today reviews Missing Persons, Animals, and Artists by Roberto Ransom]
• [https://bombmagazine.org/articles/roberto-ransoms-a-tale-of-two-lions/ BOMB Magazine Roberto Ransom's A Tale of Two Lions]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/books/review/McCall_Smith.t.html New York Times review of Roberto Ransom's A Tale of Two Lions by Alexander McCall Smith]
• [https://www.complete-review.com/reviews/mexico/ransomr2.htm The Complete Review - Missing Persons,Animals and Artists]

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Category:1960 births

Category:Living people

Category:Mexican male writers

Category:Mexican people of Irish descent

Category:Mexican people of American descent

Category:University of Virginia alumni

Category:National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni