Edgardo Vega Yunqué

Selected Works

Fiction upcoming in July 2008 from Overlook Press.
Rebecca Horowitz, Puerto Rican Sex Freak
Rebecca Horowitz, Puerto Rican Sex Freak A racy, irreverent take on the memoir, sexual politics and the novel from The Overlook Press in 2008. What does it say about America when a middle-class young woman dissatisfied with her mixed ethnicity decides to convert to being Puerto Rican? That is exactly what red-headed Rebecca Lynn Horowitz does. A pregnancy prevention social worker to Latina teens, living a fairly sedate life in the middle class neighborhood of Brooklyn's Park Slope, our heroine undergoes a transformation such as you've never read. At a party in the summer of 2000 she meets Charlie Maisonet, a Puerto Rican dandy, and her biological clock starts ticking twice as fast. Through the twists and turns of her romance with Charlie, she moves to his pad in the East Village, becomes Zoraida Delgado, a Puerto Rican exotic dancer, and begins living la vida loca. Join the author as he once again explores the environs of this pseudo-bohemian Manhattan playground, bends the rules of novel writing and satirizes the memoir, sexual politics, gender roles, and the pretense of our society. He even throws in his own photos of some of the places in the East Village that the characters frequent, including Katz Delicatessen, The Sunshine Theater, Two Boots and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Are they really his photos or are they Zoraida's, a photography and film enthusiast? Oh, the novel also addresses the issue of the Iraq War in a most ingenuous way.
The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle
A Post 9/11 satirical novel of the United States, the war on terrorism, the sloth of the intelligence community and the presidency present and past. A seriously funny-very funny-novel about Latinos and the chaos of modern American life.
No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again
A generational novel about race, jazz and the effects of war on an American family.
Casualty Report
Short stories about Puerto Rican life on the island and New York.
Mendoza's Dreams
Narrated by Vega's "alter ego" Ernesto Mendoza, the twelve stories are woven into what can best be described as a frame novel. The stories may be read individually or in a straight narrative line.
The Comeback
The author's first published novel.

Events

Monday October 01, 2007 11:00am to 1:00pm
The author will be reading from his upcoming novel from The Overlook Press, How I Became a Puerto Rican Sex Freak as well as his satirical basketball novel in progress Kiki Terranova. Location: Long Island University, Health Sciences Building - Room 119, One University Plaza (Flatbush & DeKalb Avenues), Downtown Brooklyn.

Thursday March 24, 2005
Boys' Club of New York Writers Series Edgardo Vega Yunqué is the author of No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew it Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Comin Home Again, The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle and two collections of short stories. Gene Santoro of the Washington Post said of Vega's work, he “grabs the American tiger of race by the tail. With the wry courage of a clear-eyed idealist, he dismantles cultural misconceptions and makes us squirm with uncomfortable self-recognition even as we delight in his words.”

An alumnus of the Jefferson Park Clubhouse of The Boys' Club of New York, Ed was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in East Harlem . He currently lives in Brooklyn.

Wednesday March 9, 2005

Book-Signing at Carlito’s Café y Galería

VirtualBoricua.org and Carlito’s Café y Galería invite you to a book reading event by author Edgardo Vega Yunqué to be held at 6:00 pm. Take in a cocktail (or two) as you curl up on a sofa and listen to one of El Barrio’s own literary masters read excerpts from his latest novel, The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle, a post 9/​11 satire of the Lower East Side arts community, the American presidency past and present, and other sacred cows.

Carlito’s Café y Galería is located at 1701 Lexington Avenue (between 106 & 107th Street) in East Harlem.

About the Author

Edgardo Vega Yunqué was born in Puerto Rico and came to the United States at the age of 13. He grew up in El Barrio, graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School and for many years lived on 116th Street and First Avenue. Vega has written over 18 books and published five books of fiction: The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle, No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again, Casualty Report, Mendoza’s Dreams, and The Comeback.




December 9, 2004

The author has just been awarded the prestigious PEN Josephine Miles Prize for Excellence in Literature for his epic novel No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew it Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again. The ceremony to present the award will be held on December 9 at The Elihu Harris State Building Auditorium, 1515 Clay Street in Oakland, California from 5:30 to 8:30. The presenter for this award will be the renowned and award-winning poet, Ntozake Shange.



November 11-14, 2004

The House of Books
Le Hague, Netherlands
The author will be visiting The Netherlands for the launching of the translation to the Dutch of his novel Vidamía. This is the title of No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again.

Crossing Borders Reading in La Hague, Netherlands, Saturday November 13, 8 PM.

ZATERDAG 13 NOVEMBER
voorverkoop € 25,00
festivalkassa € 28,00
Aanvang 20:00 uur
programma literatuur:
Helen Walsh, Irvine Welsh, Jonathan Coe, Oek de Jong, Bernlef, Jeanette Winterson, Magnus Mills, Tom Lanoye, Annelies Verbeke, Edgardo Vega Yunqué, Nadeem Aslan en H.H. ter Balkt, Nick Hornby, Thomas Mohlmann.

October 20-30, 2004

Harbourfront International Festival of Authors
Toronto, Canada
Edgardo Vega Yunqué has been invited to participate in this prestigious festival. He will be involved in a number of readings, books signings and interviews during his time there.

September 29, 2004

Bluestockings Bookstore
Lower East Side of Manhattan
Edgardo Vega Yunqué reading from his new novel, The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle.
Pax. 2008




If Edgardo Vega Yunqué’s latest novel is any indication, the man is a piece of work. How does he make the connection between American life and politics and tell the tale of an under-endowed punk-rocker and an unlucky-in-love bruja? I promise you, he makes it work. This definitely is Yunqué’s world, and I for one liked living in it - if only just in his book. —Helen Ubinas, The Hartford Courant, October 2004