Exploraciones fragmentadas. Antología del cuento dominicano del siglo XXI [Fragmented Explorations: An Anthology of 21st-Century Dominican Short Stories], edited by Rita De Maeseneer and Miguel D. Mena, was published by Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza (PUZ) this year (2025).
The collection includes short stories by Rey E. Andújar, Kianny Antigua, Aurora Arias, Frank Báez, Zaida Corniel, Mario Dávalos, Roxanna Delgado Boyá, Víctor Andrés De Oleo, Juan Dicent, Peter Domínguez, Samuel Esteban, Nathalie García, Ángela Hernández, Rita Indiana, Nadia Lugo, Katty Martínez, Damián Starocean, Pedro Antonio Valdez, Ariadna Vásquez, and Miguel Yarull.
Description (PUZ): This anthology of twenty short stories written in the 21st century by Dominican artists from both on and away from the island will allow readers to discover the richness of Dominican literature. It introduces fascinating and diverse worlds, no longer dominated by the dictatorial context so prevalent in Dominican literature of the last century. The stories feature adrift young people in Santo Domingo, migrants trying to survive in New York or Barcelona, tourists seeking exoticism, Haitians—those troublesome “other” neighbors—characters with “strange” behaviors, and budding writers.
Some stories are tinged with realism, others feature magic or fantasy, and some even create Caribbean-influenced science fiction settings. Humor and Dominican slang pepper more than one story: «Tá tó».
RITA DE MAESENEER is Professor Emerita of Latin American Literature and Culture at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). Specializing in Caribbean literature, she has lectured on the subject in Latin America, the United States, and Europe. [. . .] She is currently studying contemporary Caribbean literature from a “sensory” perspective.
MIGUEL D. MENA is a Dominican editor, sociologist, and essayist. He studied sociology at the University of Santo Domingo (1986) and earned a doctorate from the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Berlin (2000). Since 1985, he has directed the independent publishing project Ediciones Cielonaranja. He has taught at Universidad Iberoamericana and Universidad Pontificia Católica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic. His research has focused on Dominican urban issues. [. . .]
Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero. For more original information (in Spanish), see https://puz.unizar.es/3206-exploraciones-fragmentadas-antologia-del-cuento-dominicano-del-siglo-xxi.html
Exploraciones fragmentadas. Antología del cuento dominicano del siglo XXI [Fragmented Explorations: An Anthology of 21st-Century Dominican Short Stories], edited by Rita De Maeseneer and Miguel D. Mena, was published by Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza (PUZ) this year (2025). The collection includes short stories by Rey E. Andújar, Kianny Antigua, Aurora Arias, Frank Báez,
