Behind the Gate

Amparo Dávila was born in Mexico in 1928. She published several collections of short stories and for a short time worked as Alfonso Reye's secretary. In recent years a massive resurgence of interest has acknowledged her as one of Mexico's finest masters of the short story. Award the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize in 19977, she was honored with the Medalla Bellas Artes in 2015 Matthew Gleeson is a writer, translator, and co-editor of Writing Across the Landscape: Travel Journals 1960-2010 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. A former Mellon Public Scholar, Audrey Harris holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic languages and literatures from the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Each of these stories is equal parts Hitchcock film and razor blade: austere, immaculately crafted, profoundly unsettling, and capable of cutting you. Amparo Dávila is Kafka by way of Ogawa, Aira by way of Carrington, Cortazár by way of Somers, and I’m so grateful she’s in translation."