Enrique H. Fierro

Professor Enrique Fierro is a distinguished poet and literary critic. He was born in Montevideo (Uruguay) in 1941. He has published several books of poetry and literary criticism, and taught literature before leaving his native Uruguay in the mid-1970s. Between 1974 and 1984, professor Fierro lived in exile in Mexico with his wife, poet Ida Vitale. During this period he taught literature at the Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM). There he became active in the literary and cultural life of Mexico City and developed a collaborative relationship with Octavio Paz and the literary periodical Vuelta. In 1985, professor Fierro returned to Uruguay as Director of the Biblioteca Nacional, position that he held until 1989.  He then moved to the United States to join the faculty of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at The University of Texas at Austin. As a poet, he has received several awards including the Premio Nacional de Poesía de Uruguay, the Premio Municipal de Poesía de Montevideo, and the Premio de Traducción del Círculo de la Crítica Teatral de Uruguay. His major published works include: De la invención (Montevideo, 1964), Entonces jueves (Montevideo, 1972) , Mutaciones I (Montevideo, 1972), Impedimenta (Montevideo, 1973), Capítulo Aparte (Montevideo, 1974), Breve suma (Mexico, 1976) , ½ (Mexico, 1977), Textos/pretextos (Mexico, 1978), Las oscuras versiones (Mexico, 1980) , Ver para creer, causa perdida, estaba escrito: para una crítica de la razón poética (Mexico, 1980), Contrahierba (Mexico, 1982) , Fuera de lugar (Mexico, 1982) , La entonces música (Mexico, 1983) , Ristra (Mexico, 1984) , Quiero ver una vaca (Montevideo, 1989) , Homenajes (Montevideo, 1991), Travestía (Montevideo, 1992) , Paz por dos (Mexico, 1994) , Marcas y señales (Montevideo, 1996) , La savia duda (Montevideo, 1996) , Margen (Mexico, 1997) , Cuerpo extraño (Montevideo, 1997), Hechos, deshechos (Montevideo, 1997) , Contra la distancia (Montevideo, 1997) , Selección natural (Montevideo, 1999) , Escrito en México (Mexico, 1999). In 2006, a bilingual English/Spanish anthology of his poetry was published under the title Natural Selection (trans. Miguel Gonzalez-Gerth; Austin, TX: Host Publications).