Orlando Luis Pardo

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo (born December 10, 1971 in Havana ) is a Cuban writer , blogger, journalist and photographer . He writes science fiction books, is a columnist for the Spanish- based Cuban exile online newspaper Diario de Cuba , El Nacional in Venezuela, and runs the photo blog Boring Home Utopics and the opinion blog Lunes de Post-Revolución (Monday of the post-revolution).

Life

Born in Cuba's capital Havana, Pardo attended the local university and the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology , where he completed his studies in molecular biology in 1994 .

In 2009, he ran into conflict with the Cuban government while trying to publish his collection of short stories Boring Home . The Cuban publisher Letras Cubanas censored it. After he published the book abroad with the Prague publishing house Garamond and in the Venezuelan daily newspaper "El Nacional", he was banned from working in Cuba . He was not allowed to work, study or publish there. He was subsequently arrested three times, harassed and prevented from leaving the country. This only changed in early 2013 when Cuba liberalized travel law. Orlando Luis Pardo then went to the United States .

In the USA he continued his literary and political activities. There he published Cuba in Splinters: Eleven Stories from the New Cuba and the digital photo book Abandoned Havana , with surreal photos and texts about Havana and its ailing facades.

Works

• Boring Home
• La Habana abandonada , Restless Books (E-Book)
• Cuba in Splinters: Eleven Stories from the New Cuba . New York: OR Books, 2014.

Web links

• Boring Home Ut , Orlando Luis Pardo's photo blog, accessed October 3, 2015
• Lunes de Post-Revolución , blog by Orlando Luis Pardo, accessed October 3, 2015 (Spanish)
• Blogging a Bridge From Havana , New York Times, April 3, 2013 (English)
• Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo - IWP Fellow 2014-15 , Brown University, International Writers Project, accessed October 3, 2015