Irene Zoe Alameda

Irene Zoe Alameda (Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish writer, filmmaker, composer. Author of 3 books, 5 short-films, over 20 short-stories and 2 music albums. Obtained national fame in Spain in 2004 after the publication of her first novel "Suenos Itinerantes" (Seix Barral). And again in 2013 when she published her latest novel "WA. Ultimos Dias de Warla Alkman" (Edhasa), and she was at the center of a media controversy while writing under the nickname Amy Martin for Foundation IDEAS. She is the ex-wife of Carlos Mulas Granados.^[1]

Biography

A writer and filmmaker, she holds a PhD in literature from Columbia University. She previously studied Hispanic philology at Complutense University of Madrid and spent four semesters as Erasmus at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, where she was later hired as a lecturer of Spanish. Some former work-colleges of hers dispute that she has been working in Germany, and highlight the fact that she can not understand basic German^[2] El País op-ed contributor,^[3] she has worked as a professor at Suffolk University, the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and at the Spanish National Research Council.

She has worked as a scriptwriter, assistant director, producer, composer and art director in several short films. She has written, directed, produced and composed the original soundtrack for all her short films: Tarde de homenaje (USA 2002), Buen Viaje (Spain 2008),^[4] Uniformadas (Spain 2010) and Jaisalmer (India 2012). The documentary Jaisalmer (India 2012) is her latest cinematographic work.

Her short film Buen Viaje^[5] has received several awards and has been shown in several film festivals both in Spain and around the world, such as the Malaga Film Festival, the Iberian Film Festival of Badajoz, the Torrelavega Film Festival, Cinesul do Brasil, Festroia-Portugal, San Diego Latino Film Festival, the Bogota Film Festival and the Rochester Film Festival.

Her short Uniformed (Uniformadas) has received some international awards, such as Best Short Film at the Film Femmes Méditerranée (France, 2012), Ebensee (Austria, 2012), Milano (Italy, 2011), Festival de Cine de Alicante (Spain 2011), Malescorto (Italy, 2011), Laguardia Film Festival (Spain, 2011), Inquietarte (Spain, 2011), Festival del Mar (Spain, 2011), FICII11 (Chile, 2011), and Pecca de Oro (Spain, 2011), and her script was awarded at the Mediterranean Short Film Festival (Morocco, 2011) and Laguardia (Spain, 2011). It was also candidate to Best Short Film at the Spanish Film Academy’s Goya Awards (2010).

In addition to her cinematographic career, she has published several short stories and four books: the novels Sueños Itinerantes^[6] (Seix Barral, 2004), WA. Últimos días de Warla Alkman^[7] (Edhasa, 2013), and the essay books The Neopicaresque Novel in the Post-War Era (Michigan University Press, 2004) and Artista y Criminal^[8] (Castalia, 2011). Her novel Itinerant Dreams was critically acclaimed and the author was said to show “portentous registries, incommensurate ambition, unstoppable verbal potential and an invisible style capable of depicting the mental unhinging of our time” (Francisco Solano, EL PAÍS).^[9] Also her multimedia novel Warla Alkman has been critically acclaimed: "Reaching the end of Warla (and her brother) is worth it. The last pages are excellent and they justify the search of the hero, that doomed character dancing on the border of an abyss" (José de María Romero Barea).^[10] She has also translated into Spanish the book of poems Escena de amor en limusina y compañía (New Model Books, 2002), and the novels La fiera indomable (Martínez Roca, 2007) and Obras Selectas de T.S. Spivet (Seix Barral, 2010).

She was the director of Instituto Cervantes in Stockholm, Sweden, for 12 months (2009–2010).^[11]

She founded the production company "'Storylines'".  in 2008 in Spain. The production company expanded its activities to the US in 2012.

WA, últimos días de Warla Alkman

Irene Zoe Alameda worked on her second novel "WA, últimos días de Warla Alkman" for 9 years. It combines traditional literary texts, music, videos, bidi codes and internet links to actual sites, all created by a single author.

In January 4, 2013, the publisher of the novel, Daniel Fernandez (President of Edhasa and President of Spanish Editor’s Association) announced that the publication of WA. WA, últimos días de Warla Alkman would be one of the major literary events of the year. In his own words, Warla Alkman was “a risky, but extremely brilliant metaliterary novel”.

Ideas Foundation controversy

On January 23, 2013, the newspaper El Mundo published a scoop informing that the novelist Irene Zoe Alameda had been using the nickname Amy Martin. Articles and reportages using this nickname had been published by the Ideas Foundation (a think tank associated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) in the online section of its webpage entitled “Amy Martin Global Observer”. Alameda issued a public statement and recognized to the Spanish newspaper El País that she was the author behind Amy Martin. She explained that this was part of a performance to create real characters and go beyond the limits of reality and fiction, in her forthcoming new novel WA. WA, últimos días de Warla Alkman.

Her agent had being irregularly charging 3,000 euros for each article, and her ex-husband, Carlos Mulas, was responsible for directing the Ideas Foundation.^[12] She obtained 60,000 euros for 14 articles about all kind of topics: Nigeria politics, Fukushima or hapiness tips.^[13]

On 24 January 2013 she confessed to Spanish newspaper El País to having written articles for Fundación Ideas as Amy Martin.

On January, she gave back all the net money obtained from the Ideas Foundation. No criminal charges were ever filed agains her or the agency.^[14]

As Amy Martin, she had also coauthored the book 55 Terms For Progress / 55 Términos Para El Progreso (Spain, Fundación Ideas, 2011) and collaborated with newspaper Público.These works are available in her webpage Irene Zoe Alameda

In her latest interview about the novel, the writer Irene Zoe Alameda explained that her performance was a real attempt to eliminate the barriers between truth and fiction. She wanted that her novel WA, últimos días de Warla Alkman became a major novelty and transcended the limits of traditional literature. She wanted to go beyond the traditional format of the novel and create a Digital Hybrid Global Fiction (Dhyglofiction). As she explained, this is why she combined new techniques of expression, and decided to create alter egos as real characters, including the pop star Galatha and the best-selling writer Amy Martin.

The media controversy around that performance delayed the publication of the novel from April to November 2013. But finally the multimedia novel WA, últimos días de Warla Alkman was presented in two public events held at FNAC in Madrid and Barcelona in January 2014, with the participation of Juan Cruz, the deputy director of El Pais, and the writer David Barba. https://cubanuestra2eu.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/presentacion-en-madrid-de-wa-ultimos-dias-de-warla-alkman/).

The novel received mixed support of the literary critics. For example, in the review published by El Cultural from newspaper El Mundo, Ricardo Senabre criticized the novel for being pretentious, without interesting results, and with scarce notes of erudition at random places. In the same review, Senabre affirms that "this author has talent, but uncontrolled and without limits".

Books

• WA. Últimos días de Warla Alkman (2013). Novel.^[15]
• Sueños itinerantes (2004). Novel
• The Neopicaresque Novel in the Post-War Era (2004). Essay Book
• Artista y Criminal (2011). Essay Book

Films

• Time (2014). Short film. Director and screenwriter.^[16]
• Jaisalmer (2012). Short film. Director and screenwriter.^[17]
• Uniformadas (2010). Short film. Director and screenwriter^[18]
• Buen Viaje (2008). Short film. Director and screenwriter^[19]
• Tarde de homenaje (2002). Short film. Director and screenwriter^[20]

Music and Reber band

Irene Zoe Alameda is also a music composer and a performer. She is the author of the movie soundtracks in A Tribute’s Evening, Have a Nice Trip and Uniformed.

She has released a music album, Who Reads Future? (2012) with the band of synth pop Reber,^[21] where she performs as Galatha and where she has written all the songs.

In 2011 she founded electropop band Reber, composed of two musician siblings Galatha and Golem (musical alter egos of Irene Zoe Alameda and her brother Daniel Alameda). Their first album Who Reads Future? was released in July 2012. Their songs There UR, Julia, Think of Me and The Protester played in radio stations in Spain. The group gave concerts in Madrid, Barcelona and San Sebastian. Their futuristic videos are followed by thousands of fans around the world in the Reber channel in YouTube.

A new single called Mad City and a new video were released in December 2014 ), as part of their new album The Future Maker which was presented in February 2015, and given for free download to fans on Valentine’s Day.

Awards

External links

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• Irene Zoe Alameda's channel on YouTube
• Official website

References

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