Eliot Weinberger

Who is Eliot Weinberger?

Eliot Weinberger is a contemporary American writer, essayist, editor, and translator. His work regularly appears in translation and has been published in some thirty languages. Collections of his essays have most recently appeared in Russia, Albania, Flemish Belgium, Spain and Germany.

Weinberger first gained recognition for his translations of the Nobel Prize winning writer and poet Octavio Paz. His many translations of the work of Paz include the Collected Poems 1957-1987, In Light of India, and Sunstone. Among Weinberger's other translations are Vicente Huidobro's Altazor, Xavier Villaurrutia's Nostalgia for Death, and Jorge Luis Borges' Seven Nights. His edition of Borges’ Selected Non-Fictions received the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.

Today, Weinberger is primarily known for his literary writings and political articles, the former characterized by their experimental style, verging on a kind of documentary prose poetry, and the latter highly critical of American politics and foreign policy, particularly during the Bush administration.