National Prize for Poetry 1962Silvina Ocampo

(1903-1993)
Argentina

Silvina Ocampo was born in Buenos Aires in 1903 to an elite Argentine family. With her husband Bioy Casares and their close friend Jorge Luis Borges, Ocampo collaborated on two anthologies while at the same time publishing fiction and poetry on her own. A short story writer and a poet of very rare talent, Silvina Ocampo was awarded the National Prize for Poetry in 1962, among several other literary awards. She died in Buenos Aires in 1993.

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About her work

Ocampo’s lasting fame rests on her volumes of short stories, published between 1937 and 1988, such as Autobiografía de Irene (“Irene`s Autobiography”, 1948) and La furia y otros cuentos (“The Fury and other Stories”, 1959) as well as posthumously published works such as Las repeticiones y otros cuentos (“The Repetitions and other Stories”, 2006) or her novel La torre sin fin (“The Topless Tower”, 2006).

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The Promise

In 2011 Sudamericana published Ocampo’s “posthumous autobiography”. The novel The Promise (“La promesa”) is an intelligent, finely observed and bizarre portrait of a number of people and their relationships to one another. When a woman falls overboard on a ship, she makes a promise to herself: Should she survive, she will write a book about all the people who have played a role in her life, be it large or small.

Quotes

La promesa

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The Topless Tower

On the arrival of a mysterious stranger laden with paintings, Leandro finds his quiet life disrupted instantly and mysteriously. He awakens locked in a windowless room in a topless tower, the subject of one of the stranger’s eerie paintings. His childish voice draws the reader into a mythical world full of imaginary beings.

RIGHTS

ORIGINAL EDITIONS AND RIGHTS SOLD

NOVEL
The Topless Tower (“La torre sin fin”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2007, 124 p.
Turkey: Nebula (Paloma) 2018 · UK: Hesperus Press 2010; Calque Press 2023

NOUVELLE
The Promise (“La promesa”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2011, 144 p.
Albania: Dituria · France: Des Femmes 2017 · Italy: La Nuova Frontiera 2013 · Norway: Meteor Forlag · Portugal: Antígona 2023 · Spain: Lumen 2023 · Turkey: Notos Kitap 2022 · USA: City Lights 2019 (Spanish and English world rights)

SHORT PROSE (SELECTION)
Nueve perros (in: “Cuentos completos”, Vol. 2, Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1999)
USA: Vista Higher Learning 2022

El dibujo del tiempo
Spain: Lumen 2013; 2023

Las repeticiones y otros relatos inéditos
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 296 p.
France: Des Femmes 2023
Romania: Univers

La furia y otros cuentos
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 275 p.
Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2019 · China: Dook Media · Germany: Suhrkamp 1992 · Portugal: Antígona 2021 · Romania: Univers 2015 · Spain: Alianza 1982; Lumen 2023

Invenciones del recuerdo
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 183 p.
France: Des Femmes 2021

Autobiografía de Irene
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2008, 192 p.
China: Dook Media · Italy: Sellerio 2000 · Spain: Lumen 2023

Ejércitos de la oscuridad
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2008, 185 p.
Spain: Lumen 2023

Cuentos completos”, Vol. 2
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1999, 419 p.

Cuentos completos, Vol. 1
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1999, 496 p.

Cornelia frente al espejo
Buenos Aires: Lumen 1988, 262 p.
Spain: Tusquets Editores 2002; Lumen 2023
Feature film, 2012: nominated for 5 Awards by the Academia de las Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de la Argentina (incl. Best Screenplay – Adapted)

The Days of the Night (“Los días de la noche”)
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 1970; Lumen 2023, 232 p.
Italy: Enaudi 1976 · Portugal: Edições da Snob 2022 · Spain: Alianza 1984; Lumen 2023

Las invitadas
Buenos Aires: 1961, Lumen 2016, 320 p.
Brazil: Companhia das Letras 2022 · China: Dook Media · Portugal: Antígona 2022 · Slovenia: LUD 2018

Where There´s Love, There´s Hate (“Los que aman odian”)
(novella with Adolfo Bioy Casares)
Buenos Aires: Emecé 1946, 2005, 2013, 2016, 152 p.
Brasil: Oficina do Livro 2009 · German: Manesse 2010 · Greece: Alexandria 1994 · France: Christian Bourgois 1998, Cambourakis 2022 · Italy: Einaudi 1988; Sur 2019 · Romania: RAO 2020 · Russia: Azbuka 2000 · Spain: Tusquets (Planeta) 1989 · USA: Melville 2013

Forgotten Journey (“Viaje olvidado”)
Buenos Aires: Sur 1937; Emecé 2005, 2025, 152 p.
USA: City Lights 2019 (Spanish and English world rights)

ANTHOLOGIES
France: Gallimard 1974, 1999 · Italy: Einaudi 1973, Editori Riuniti 1989, La Nuova Frontiera 2010 · Poland: Instytut Książki 2022 · Romania: Univers · USA: New York Review of Books 2015

Swedish Anthology:
Amazing stories from Hispanoamerica
(“Irene’s Autobiography & Other Short Stories”)
Sweden: Komet 2019

Polish Anthology:
Amazing stories from Hispanoamerica
(“Opowiesci niesamowite z Hispanoameryki”)
(“La Expiación”, “Éxodo”, “Celestina”)
Poland: Panstowy Instytut Wydawniczy 2022

Spanish Anthology:
Essential stories of the 20th century in Latin America
(“Cuentos imprescindibles del siglo XX de América Latina”)
(“La Expiación”)
Spain: Alma Editorial 2025

English Anthology:
Short Diary Fiction. A New Global Anthology
(“El diario de Porfiria Bernal: Relato de Miss Antonia Fielding”)
UK: Bloomsbury 2025

FOR CHILDREN
El caballo alado
Buenos Aires: Ediciones De La Flor 1996
Italy: Mondadori 2000

La naranja maravillosa
Buenos Aires: Sudamericana 2006, 118 p.
Italy: Mondadori 2001

O – Literarische Agentur

Silvina Ocampo

(1903-1993)
Argentina

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About her work

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The Promise

Quotes

»Ocampo’s readers will participate in an unforgettable banquet. Luckily for many of us, Ocampo’s universe is constantly expanding.«
Página/12

»Of all the words that could define her, the most accurate is, I think, ingenious.«
Jorge Luis Borges

» . . . a bold phantasmagoria, marked by Ocampo’s insight that in extremis, delirium can be the highest form of truth.«
Laura Kolbe, New York Review of Books

»Diamonds, Dionysus, and Drowning: . . . every sentence glints with precision . . . what you’re after are the sentences, which have the feel of epigrams . . . I think I took a photo of nearly every other page so as not to forget them.«
Rhian Sasseen, The Paris Review

»I think Silvina Ocampo is a genius, one of the greatest. She lived a little in the shadow of her sister Victoria on the one hand and of her husband Bioy Casares and Borges on the other. She was an extravagant woman when writing her stories, short and crystalline, she was perfect.«
César Aira

»Suzanne Jill Levine, working with Jessica Powell on The Promise and Katie Lateef-Jan on Forgotten Journey, has produced a translation that beautifully captures the elegance and strangeness of Ocampo’s style. . . . The results are intoxicating.«
Miranda France, The Times Literary Supplement

»A seminal work by an underread master. Required for all students of the human condition.«
Kirkus Reviews

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The Topless Tower

RIGHTS

O – Literarische Agentur

Silvina Ocampo

(1903-1993) Argentina

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About her work

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The Promise

Quotes

»Ocampo’s readers will participate in an unforgettable banquet. Luckily for many of us, Ocampo’s universe is constantly expanding.« Página/12

»Of all the words that could define her, the most accurate is, I think, ingenious.« Jorge Luis Borges

» . . . a bold phantasmagoria, marked by Ocampo’s insight that in extremis, delirium can be the highest form of truth.« Laura Kolbe, New York Review of Books

»Diamonds, Dionysus, and Drowning: . . . every sentence glints with precision . . . what you’re after are the sentences, which have the feel of epigrams . . . I think I took a photo of nearly every other page so as not to forget them.« Rhian Sasseen, The Paris Review

»I think Silvina Ocampo is a genius, one of the greatest. She lived a little in the shadow of her sister Victoria on the one hand and of her husband Bioy Casares and Borges on the other. She was an extravagant woman when writing her stories, short and crystalline, she was perfect.« César Aira

»Suzanne Jill Levine, working with Jessica Powell on The Promise and Katie Lateef-Jan on Forgotten Journey, has produced a translation that beautifully captures the elegance and strangeness of Ocampo’s style. . . . The results are intoxicating.« Miranda France, The Times Literary Supplement

»A seminal work by an underread master. Required for all students of the human condition.« Kirkus Reviews

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The Topless Tower

RIGHTS

(1903-1993)
Argentina

»Ocampo’s readers will participate in an unforgettable banquet. Luckily for many of us, Ocampo’s universe is constantly expanding.«
Página/12

»Of all the words that could define her, the most accurate is, I think, ingenious.«
Jorge Luis Borges

» . . . a bold phantasmagoria, marked by Ocampo’s insight that in extremis, delirium can be the highest form of truth.«
Laura Kolbe, New York Review of Books

»Diamonds, Dionysus, and Drowning: . . . every sentence glints with precision . . . what you’re after are the sentences, which have the feel of epigrams . . . I think I took a photo of nearly every other page so as not to forget them.«
Rhian Sasseen, The Paris Review

»I think Silvina Ocampo is a genius, one of the greatest. She lived a little in the shadow of her sister Victoria on the one hand and of her husband Bioy Casares and Borges on the other. She was an extravagant woman when writing her stories, short and crystalline, she was perfect.«
César Aira

»Suzanne Jill Levine, working with Jessica Powell on The Promise and Katie Lateef-Jan on Forgotten Journey, has produced a translation that beautifully captures the elegance and strangeness of Ocampo’s style. . . . The results are intoxicating.«
Miranda France, The Times Literary Supplement

»A seminal work by an underread master. Required for all students of the human condition.«
Kirkus Reviews