José Manuel Prieto was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1962. He is the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction including the international acclaimed Enciclopedia de una vida en Rusia (Encyclopedia of a life in Russia), Livadia (published in English as Nocturnal Butterflies of the Russian Empire), Rex, and El Tartamudo y la rusa (short stories), among others. His Voz humana (Human Voice) is forthcoming. He has translated into Spanish works by Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Mayakovski, Andrei Platonov, Guennady Aigi, among others. Prieto earned his PhD in History at the Universidad Autónoma de México and has been a Fellow at The New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers and has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Jose Manuel Prieto has taught at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica (CIDE) in Mexico City, Cornell University as a visiting professor, and at Princeton University as a distinguished lecturer. He is an Associate Professor at Seton Hall University.

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