Irene Zoe Alameda

Irene Zoe Alameda (Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish writer, filmmaker, composer. Obtained national fame in Spain in 2013 for her novel "WA. Ultimos Dias de Warla Alkman".

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 El País op-ed contributor, 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 (US 2002), Buen Viaje (Spain 2008), Uniformadas (Spain 2010) and Jaisalmer (India 2012). The documentary Jaisalmer (India 2012) is her latest cinematographic work.

Her short film Buen Viaje 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 (Seix Barral, 2004), WA. Últimos días de Warla Alkman (Edhasa, 2013), and the essay books The Neopicaresque Novel in the Post-War Era (Michigan University Press, 2004) and Artista y Criminal (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). 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). 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 has released a music album, Who Reads Future? (2012) with the band of synth pop Reber, where she performs as Galatha and where she has written all the songs. According to Onda Pop radio conductor Jesús María López, "Galatha's cold and robotic voice combines perfectly with Reber's retro-futuristic rhythm, which features the most intimate Beck and the most dazzling vibe of The Killers" [1]

She was the director of Instituto Cervantes in Stockholm, Sweden, for 12 months (2009–2010). She currently works as a university professor in the United States.

Her latest book, Conexión Senegal, will be published by the EMT [2] (Spanish Public Transportation Authority, and will distribute 10,000 copies among EMT users [3]

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

On 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”.

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.

She has been irregularly charging 3,000 euros for each article, and her ex-husband, Carlos Mulas, was initially considered responsible for hiring her. These allegations were later dismissed. She obtained 60,000 euros for 14 articles on several topics: Nigerian politics, Fukushima or happiness tips.

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

On January, she donated all the money that her literary agent charged to the Ideas Foundation, to avoid further media controversy.

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 support of the literary critics. For example, José Romero Barea wrote in Luz Cultural [4] that "Irene Zoe Alameda belongs to that family of authors who need to break free ofthe limitations of the literary tradition" [5]. In the review published by Ricardo Senabre in El Cultural from newspaper El Mundo, he acknowledged that Irene Zoe Alameda "is without any doubt a talented writer, but maybe excessively ambitious". He also criticized the novel for being pretentious, without interesting results, and with scarce notes of erudition at random places.

• WA. Últimos días de Warla Alkman (2013). Novel.
• Sueños itinerantes (2004). Novel
• The Neopicaresque Novel in the Post-War Era (2004). Essay Book
• Artista y Criminal (2011). Essay Book
• Antrópolis (2017). Poetry
• Conexión Senegal (2017) Essay.

• Time (2014). Short film. Director and screenwriter.
• Jaisalmer (2012). Short film. Director and screenwriter.
• Uniformadas (2010). Short film. Director and screenwriter
• Buen Viaje (2008). Short film.Director and screenwriter
• Tarde de homenaje (2002). Short film. Director and screenwriter

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.

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.