Damiana Reprieve

Winner of the Casa de Teatro Prize (Dominican Republic). A fine novella distinguished by insight and sensitivity. Translated from the Spanish.A candid look at a young opera singer, what happens backstage before and during performances, and what happens when unexpected turns in life leave one facing the not-so-cliché reality that the show must go on… Damiana is the lead in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and leading up to the opening day’s performance a sequence of unexpected events – from a surprise family reunion that forces her to analyze her past, to facing the consequences of the domestic abuse she and her siblings endured, on through finding the answer to a very painful question – culminate to leave her world forever altered.

Martha Bátiz was born and raised in Mexico City, but has been living in Toronto since 2003. Her articles, chronicles, reviews and short stories have appeared in newspapers and magazines in her homeland as well as in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Peru, Ireland, England, the United States and Canada. She holds a PhD in Latin American Literature, is an instructor of Creative Writing at the University of Toronto, and is a part-time professor at York University/Glendon College, where she teaches Spanish and Literary Translation. In 2014, Martha was featured in Latinos Magazine among the Top Ten Most Successful Mexicans in Canada. In 2015, she was chosen as one of the Top Ten Most Influential Hispanic-Canadians. Her most recent short-story collection, Plaza Requiem (Exile Editions, Nov. 2017), is her first book written in English.