Tara FitzGerald is pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction and Literary Translation at Columbia University, and is also the 2011-2012 Nonfiction Editor of Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art (http://columbiajournal.org). She moved to New York in 2010, after six years living and working in Mexico City as a freelance travel, lifestyle and culture writer for publications including Monocle, *Wallpaper and Esquire Latin America. She also reported regularly from Mexico for Radio New Zealand. Previous to her Mexican sojourn, she was a reporter for Reuters international news agency in London, Frankfurt, Bonn, Dubai and Moscow.
Travel featured early and often in her life, and although her family is originally from Ireland, she grew up in England, South Africa and Holland. She speaks fluent Spanish and French, and can muddle her way through in German, Russian and Portuguese. Photography is a passion, as well as food, eco-tourism and adventure travel, cinema, literature and scuba diving. She holds a BA in English Language and Literature from Oxford University.
Tara is currently working on a nonfiction book project based around the dying Aral Sea in Central Asia. She is also translating Ernesto Semán's novel Soy un bravo piloto de la nueva China for publication in English.
Escala (Aeromexico): L.A. Vintage Style, August 2009
The Independent: Mexico Under the Shadow Of Swine Flu, April 2009
Departures: A Stroll through Mexico's Contemporary Art Scene, February 2009
Monocle: Inside Mexico's Film Industry, September 2008
Inside Mexico: Paco Ignacio Taibo II -- Crime Fighting and Novel Writing, December 2007
High Life (British Airways): Learning To Cook Mexican Style, April 2007
*Wallpaper: Mezcal is Mexico's New Tipple, 2007 (one of a set of semi-regular columns for the magazine)
Escala (AeroMexico): Learning to Fly in New York, 2007
Monocle: Mexico City's Roma Neighbourhood, April 2007
Examples of Radio NZ Dispatches
"Aral Sea, Uzbekistan"
"Aral Sea, Kazakhstan"
"Mexico At Sundance"
"Free Viagra; Cross Dressing"
"Ixtapa; U.S. Election; Plane Crash; Axolotl"
"Mexican Cinema; Morelia Film Festival"
"Kidnappings; Mexico vs. Jamaica; Hurricanes"
"Cuba's Olympics; Mexico's Olympics; Global AIDS Conference"
"Tree planting Campaign; Cuban Immigrants; Border Fence"
"Mexico's New Football Coach; Mexico City Roof Gardens; Tortilla Prices; Naked Bike Protest"
"Mothers' Day; Mass Quinceañera Party; Children's Day Party"
"Absolut Vodka Advert; Smoking Ban; Anti-Emo Attacks"
Tara is working on an English-language translation of Ernesto Semán's novel Soy un bravo piloto de la nueva China.
She was awarded a 2011 fellowship by the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA).
To read Tara's translation of the novel's opening pages click HERE.
The COMMON: In Search of a Ghostly Sea, October 2011.
