Niñas y detectives

Short Stories. Bartleby Editores. 2009. 128 pages.

“Tension is never fully contained in her narrative. Violence explodes and trouble is everywhere. Like the scorpions in one of her stories, men and women are always on the attack and to sense the danger one must be alert. What for others may be the tranquil page, here there is real blood, and it’s never gratuitous. My commentary falls short if I say that with Niñas y detectives, Giovanna Rivero bursts with force into the contemporary Latin American literary pantheon published in Spain.

This book is, simultaneously, a storm of imagery, fascinating plots, and a celebration of language. Be advised.” Edmundo Paz Soldán.

“Giovanna Rivero’s stories pound the reader’s mind. Whether it be the subject or the form of the narrative, Giovanna doesn’t want anybody to be indifferent to her literary wagers (…).

(…)”Giovanna Rivero’s boldness with subject matter and attitudes that could be considered taboo is another direct blow to the reader’s jaw. In stories such as Honorarios, not only does one find commotion but a knockout.” Esteban Gutierrez Gómez, Revista de Letras.

(…)”Niñas y detectives goes beyond its own spatial, temporal, and any other circumstances. Niñas y detectives is literature”

(…)”Her pen moves with a firmness that almost gets stuck in your side and you can smell your own blood” (…) Celia Gutiérrez Vázquez

Published by: Castellano en el mundo: Bartleby Editores

Las camaleonas

Novel, Editorial La Hoguera. 2001 y 2009

A model, a detective, a sadistic psychiatrist, and a forbidden intimate diary constitute the cardinal points with which a woman in her thirties will draw the map of her affective future.

Las Camaleonas is a novel that sees the feminine soul through to the bitter end converting clichés into unknown territories. What was considered in principle as an “erotic” novel has demonstrated, already in its third edition, that the pulp has more flesh and complexity than the skin that deceivingly conceals it. This is, in short, an unpredictable novel.

Published by: Editorial La Hoguera

Tukzon

Hybrid Novel. Editorial La Hoguera, 2008, 2010. 186 pages

The second edition (2010) was reissued with one of its stories made into a comic strip under the direction of illustrator Billy Castillo.

The plot centers on an organ trafficking operation in Arizona, USA, whose victims are illegal immigrants.

The Bolivian magazine Mother Fucker has sent a writer/crime reporter to write a dangerous story on organ traffickers that work out of Arizona and whose victims are illegal immigrants. Her contact in the “exterior” is the mysterious Ariadna Nemesis, who will guide her to the Arizona deserts. There, a terrible conspiracy that is taking place (in which even Hollywood is a participant) is intent on maintaining the president of the United States alive: His body requires new organs.

A fierce novel; entertaining and wild.

(…)  “Giovanna Rivero, with an enviable fluency that stems from her tight style, made of a zenithal lucidity, is capable of illuminating the most hidden states of consciousness.” Ramón Rocha Monroy

(…) “Tukzon is a hybrid novel or a collection of 14 related stories linked by a singular, innovative, and daring concept that unites them in an allusive and fragmentary fashion.” Ronald Flores

“Rivero’s style is of a fluid biting rhythm, mixing descriptions and philosophical observations with admirable ease.” Ronald Flores


Published by: Editorial La Hoguera

Giovanna Rivero

Has published the following books of short stories: Contraluna (2005), Sangre dulce (2006), La dueña de nuestros sueños (children’s stories) (2002, 2010), and Niñas y detectives (2009). She has also published the novels Las Camaleonas (2001, 2006, 2009) and Tukzon, historias colaterales (2008, 2010). Many of her stories have been translated into English, German, French, Hungarian, and Farsi. Her work has been compiled in anthologies such as El futuro no es nuestro (Eterna Cadencia 2009),Voces de las dos orillas (Universidad de Playa Ancha 2001), The Fat Man From La Paz (Seven Press, Nueva York 2000), Pequeñas Resistencias Vol. II (Madrid 2005), and Ships of Flame (Anthology compiled by Michi Strausfeld, Germany 2010).

In 2004 she participated in the prestigious International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in the Unites States. She also took part in the Festival de la Palabra in Alcalá de Henares in 2009 and in  Fét a América in Barcelona in 2010.

Her essay, “El crimen Kistch,” has been included in Tradition et Modernité dans l’oeuvre d’Edmundo Paz Soldán, under the direction of Erich Fisbach and published in 2010 in France by Presses Universitaries d´Angers.

She has received the Literary Prize of Santa Cruz de la Sierra (1996) and the National Short Story Prize Franz Tamayo (2005).

In 2006 she received a Fulbright-LASPAU scholarship. Currently, she is getting her PhD in Spanish American Literature at the University of Florida in the United States.

She publishes chronicles and reviews weekly in her blog:

http://dark-paranoid-park.blogspot.com

Works

Contraluna. Short Stories, 2005
Sangre dulce. Short Stories, 2006
La dueña de nuestros sueños. Short Stories, 2002, 2010
Niñas y detectives. Short Stories, 2009
Las Camaleonas. Novel, 2001, 2006, 2009
Tukzon, historias colaterales. Novel, 2008