spuytenduyvil

Water Log is a book of trajectories: stories liquidly knit around the characters of an island that are trying to keep their sense of belonging through the practice of surf, love, sex and friendship. With a felt debt to Rock'n Roll, Big Kahuna, Julio Cortázar, and the art of destructotherapy, Clemente's Log is a rebellious splash of poetic images and sensations that will leave the reader happily refreshed and eroticized.

     Marta del Pozo, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth

 

Water Log is a love story and a travel narrative always in perfect tension between departure and arrival. It is a novel that begins anew with every story, and with the same sense of agility and dare of his character, it always comes back home to a place that is different and the same. Clemente’s character is the Robert Louis Stevenson who travels by donkey to show how the best part of a trip is how well it is told and in the process he reconstructs the familiar as new. A micronarrative in the tradition of Lydia Davis, this original and engaging novel makes each of these stories a bridge that connects land and sea, body and mind, and between each of them Clemente creates spaces for us to become the best readers we can be.

      Ernesto Livon-Grosman. Director of Latin American Studies

      (Dept. of Romance Languages and  Literatures) Boston College

 

Hugo Clemente’s ebullient, entrancing, raw, linguistically sensuous Water Log is to be savored in the immediacy of every line. The strength of the language rivals that of the waves that denude an adventurous young man in search of life, love, and meaning. This well executed novel, which showcases the Spanish avant-garde, leaves the reader foaming at the mouth.

       Jorge Armenteros, author of The Roar of the River

 

 

Hugo Clemente (Salamanca, Spain. 1973)

 

With a degree as a social psychologist, Hugo Clemente has been teaching Spanish at several universities in Boston since 2015. He coordinated the Canarian School of Literary Creation (2013-2015), but also has worked as a therapist at a methadone program, a surf and snowboard instructor and  as a Dj among others. He has been teaching Creative Writing Workshops in different Spanish cities as well as in New York, Boston and Stamsund (Norway).

 

He was finalist at LuchaLibro (First Literary Improvisation Championship held in Spain, 2012) and has also participated in other collections of stories: PervertiDos (Editorial Traspiés, Granada, 2014), Ménades: an invitation to euphoria (La Piscina Editorial-Keroxen, Tenerife, 2015) and has scripted for theater and cinema. His last documentary, The Blinking Island (2016), has been selected in the official section in different festivals (Miradas.Doc, Canarias Surf Film Festival, Madrid Surf Film Festival, Portugues Surf Film Festival, Bombay Water Film Festival, Surf & Music & Friends Festival…), nominated at Concepción Independent Film Awards (Chile) and awarded with Best Script at MIMPI Fest (Brazil) 2017 and the Audience Award at Mequinenza International Film Festival 2017 (Spain).

 

He has collaborated with various media such as the International Journal of Iberian Studies, Mondo Sonoro, Los Bárbaros (NY), Calviva, Píldora Sonora, and regularly publishes in his blog ¡No toques nada! He also works in translation and literary proofreading.

 

Cuaderno de Agua (Novela. Canalla Ediciones, Madrid, 2012), which is about to exhaust its third edition, was translated by Peter Khan as Water Log during 2016.