GOLDEMBERG, ISAAC

GOLDEMBERG, ISAAC (1945– ), Peruvian poet, novelist, and lecturer. The son of a Catholic Peruvian mother and a Jewish immigrant, he was alternately raised in both cultures. He studied in Spain and the U.S., lived for two years in Israel, and settled in New York in 1964. Goldemberg taught at various universities and was a professor at the Hostos Community College and the Graduate School of CUNY, where he founded and directed the Latin American Writers Institute. His novels and poems reflect, in a personal and unconventional way, the conflicts of an always unfinished identity made up of contradictory cultures, of exiles, and the desire to belong. He published the following: novels – La vida a plazos de don Jacobo Lerner (1978; The Fragmented Life of Don Jacobo Lerner, 1976), selected by the National Yiddish Book Center among the greatest Jewish literary works; Tiempo al tiempo (1984; Play by Play, 1984); El nombre del padre ("The Name of the Father," 2001); Poetry – Tiempo de silencio ("Time of Silence," 1970); Hombre de paso/Just Passing Through (bilingual, 1981); Cuerpo del amor ("Body of Love," 2000); La vida son los ríos ("Lives are the Rivers," fiction & poetry, 2005); Peruvian Blues (2001); Memorias ("Memories," 2005); plays – Hotel Amérikka (2000); Golpe de gracia ("Coup of Death," 2003). In 2003 appeared Señas y contraseñas: Antología personal. Poesía, narrativa, teatro ("Signs and Passwords: Personal Anthology. Poetry, Fiction, and Theater"). In 1998 he edited El Gran Libro de América Judía ("The Great Book of Jewish America," a huge anthology of Latin American Jewish writing). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: L. Baer Barr, Isaac Unbound. Patriarchal Traditions in the Latin American Jewish Novel (1995); E. González Viaña, Identidad cultural y memoria colectiva en la obra de Isaac Goldemberg (2001); J. Paredes Carbonell, Isaac Goldemberg ante la crítica: Una visión múltiple (2004); D. Sheinin and L. Baer Barr, The Jewish Diaspora in Latin America: New Studies on History and Literature (1996); I. Stavans, The Hispanic Condition. Reflections on Culture & Identity in America (1995); S. Sosnowski, Isaac Goldemberg: The Esthetics of Fragmentation (2003); M.A. Zapata, Luces de la memoria: Conversaciones con Isaac Goldemberg (2003). (Florinda F. Goldberg (2nd ed.)