Glass Eye, A

Miren Agur Meabe (Lekeitio, 1962), holds degrees in teaching and Basque philology. She worked as a teacher in the Kirkiño Basque school in Bilbao and as a publisher in Giltza for many years. She writes literature for children and for adults, both poetry and prose. Her prizes include the 2001 and 2011 Critic’s Poetry Awards for Azalaren kodea and Bitsa eskuetan, and the 2002, 2006, and 2011 Euskadi Prizes for her three young adult novels, Itsaslabarreko etxea, Urtebete itsasargian, and Errepidea. Her book Mila magnolia-lore is on the 2012 International Board on Books Honour’s List. Some of the honorary awards she has received are the Lauaxeta Prize (2007), the Rosalia de Castro Prize (2012) and the Deia-Hemendik Prize (2015). Her writings have been translated into several languages, and into Braille. She has been a member of the Basque Academy of Letters since 2006.

‘But what if we are all fictioneers? What if we all continually make up the stories of our lives? (…) Our life-stories are ours to construct as we wish, within or even against the constraints imposed by the real world…’ J.M. COETZEEA writer in her late thirties retreats to Landes in France for a while, fleeing from her own suffering after the break-up of a relationship. Little by little, she finds solace in writing about the losses in her life, about her person, and about indifference and freedom, and in sharing the doubts that arise in her creative process with a ‘you’ whom she imagines to be on the other side of the paper.The glass eye, a self-referential element of the author-protagonist and metaphor for pain and transcendence, also represents the literary concept of the work, a private notebook where fiction imitates and replaces a fragmented reality.Translated into English by Amaia Gabantxo, arguably the most prestigious Basque-English translator working today.