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César Aira:
A Prolific and a Potential
Argentine Author
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Munir Fayyaz
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He writes every day; he walks the same streets of Buenos Aires; he publishes small books with small presses; he carries on. — Munir Fayyaz.
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When it comes to one of the rarest and reckless corners of modern literature, Cesar Aira appears to have built a sanctuary. He harbors immense courage to rewrite the norms of fiction into an entirely new paradigm.
Born in Coronel Pringles in 1949, César Aira has produced an extensive literary canon of works ranging from novelettes to short stories and even translations. His works are a testament to his craftsman approach to writing — he writes incessantly; publishes tirelessly; and refuses to smoothen the smudges in his creative spark. For him, writing is a ritual of constant improvement that is meant to be relentlessly pursued. As his work is highly original, so he is considered one of the most important contemporary writers from Latin America.
Additionally, critics often describe Aira as the successor to Borges. This is a claim that Aira neither personally endorsed nor denied. Although, the two writers, not only share a national canvas, but also an imaginative tendency to move between genres, philosophies, and traditions without so much as a tint of reluctance. Nonetheless, Aira’s literary temper is remarkably different and it should be credited as so. While Borges pursued perfection, Aira accepts the complex array of messiness that comes with being a writer. His process relies heavily on his capacity to allow the story to unfold as a mystery; to pursue digression and spontaneity as the bedrock of art.
This approach is rather evident in his method because he starts with a premise and extrapolates his way forward exempting any revisions or rewriting. Hence, the arcs in the story become the story. Rarely, a writer exhibits such witty playfulness in his work yet resulting in a singular narrative infused with reality.
What makes Aira compelling is not just his prolific output but the consistency of his literary curiosity. His novels—whether they follow a painter in a Patagonian hotel; a child encountering the supernatural in a provincial town; or a writer wandering into the absurd — are united by a constant experimentation that resists the gravitational pull of convention.
For César Aira, fiction is a laboratory and a playground, which exists un-flinched by the gravitational pull of convention. So, each of his book is a nebulae exploding on its own and birthing new narratives, ideas, and plots. He writes every day; he walks the same streets of Buenos Aires; he publishes small books with small presses; he carries on. And yet, behind this routine lies a literary force that has reshaped the landscape of Latin American fiction.
Since, César Aira is a prolific Argentine author with over 100 books to his name, so he has won significant awards, such as the Konex Award for Translation in 1994 and for Novel in 2004; and the Prix Formentor 2021. He was also a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize in 2015.
Although César Aira has also been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature a number of times as a potential future recipient due to his prolific and acclaimed body of work but he hasn’t won the prize as yet. However, some critics and literary forums have deliberated Aira as a potential Nobel Prize candidate, even while acknowledging the lack of political content in his work. A key reason for not winning the prize is translations of his limited books to English and other languages. And, this aspect is considered as a barrier for the Swedish Academy to fully appreciate his extensive production. Aira himself has expressed that winning the Nobel would be a “terrible” thing for him, as it would force him into a public role and cause him to lose his anonymity.
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A prominent poet (Urdu and English), Translator, Critic and serving as Assistant Professor (English) in F. G. Colleges, Islamabad, Paksitan. He also gives lectures on Literature and Translation Studies in leading University of the Capital City. Moreover, he has edited special issue of “Pakistan Literature” (Contemporary Short Stories of Pakistan) published by Pakistan Academy of Letters.
Munir Fayyaz is also a broadcaster at Radio Pakistan Islamabad and Panelist of Pakistan Television (World) for Literary Programs. Furthermore, he has been translating Pakistani Poetry and Fiction into English since 2009. Additionally, his debut translations into Urdu are: Contemporary Chinese Short Stories; Kyrgyz Writer Cengiz Aitmatov’s novellas; An Anthology of Nepali Poets as “Nepal ki Aawa” (The Voice of Nepal). Morevoer, He has also written profiles of poets and writers of International fame: Naguib Mahfouz and John Ashberry, and the US Poet Laureates Tracy K. Smith and Juan Philippe Herrera.
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