Salvador Novo (1904-1974) was a provocative and prolific cultural presence in Mexico City through much of the twentieth century. With his friend and fellow poet Xavier Villaurrutia, he cofounded Ulises and Contemporáneos, landmark avant-garde journals of the late 1920s and 1930s. At once "outsider" and "insider," Novo held high posts at the Ministries of Culture and Public Education and wrote volumes about Mexican history, politics, literature, and culture. The author of numerous collections of poems, including XX poemas, Nuevo amor, Espejo,Dueño mìo, and Poesìa 1915-1955, Novo is also considered one of the finest, most original prose stylists of his generation.
Marguerite Feitlowitz is the author of the internationally acclaimed A Lexicon of Terror: Argentina and the Legacies of Torture. She has translated the works of, among others, Griselda Gambaro, Carlos Monsiváis, Liliane Atlan, and Angélica Gorodischer. She teaches literature at Bennin
