Ricardo Lida Nirenberg

Born in Argentina, he has taught mathematics in several lands, most recently at The University at Albany, and written in diverse genres.
Two novels: Cry Uncle (1998, The Latino Press, NY) and Wave Mechanics (Blaurock Press, Canada 2008.)
His writing appears frequently in Offcourse, the e-journal he has edited since 1998.

Please contact him at r.nirenberg@albany.edu. For a more detailed bio and a list of his other publications, see his home page at The University at Albany website.

Ricardo's latest book is Uncountable, A Philosophical History of Number and Humanity from Antiquity to the Present, co-written with his son David Nirenberg. It appeared in October 2021, by UChicago Press. If your local independent bookstore does not have it, is available from the press, or from Amazon.

Ricardo's pages in Offcourse:

• "Three Salvos for Cultural Appropriation", by Ricardo Nirenberg, Issue 100, March 2025
• "It's about Time", a dialogue between Joachim Frank and Ricardo Nirenberg, Issue 100, March 2025
• Chapter 17, part of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg. Issue 99, December 2024
• Chapter 16 of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg. Issue 98, September 2024
• "Fourier Series and Ironic Horseplay", Chapter 15 of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg, #97, June 2024
• A review of John Amen's "Dark Souvenirs", NYQ Books, 2024, by Ricardo Nirenberg. #97, June 2024
• "Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales”, Chapter 14 of a Memoir by Ricardo L. Nirenberg, #96, March 2024
• "Life Road Choices", Chapter 13 of a memoir by Ricardo L. Nirenberg, Issue #95, December 2023
• The Beautiful Losses, by Fred Pollack. Review by Ricardo Nirenberg. Issue #94, September 2023
• "Now you are a Man, my Son", an extract from a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg. Issue #94, September 2023
• "A Steep Spiritual Decline", from the memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg, #93 June 2023
• A Spanish Sonnet by Horacio Porta, translated by R. Nirenberg, #93 June 2023
• "On Reading Philosophy after Hours", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg, #92 March 2023
• Ricardo L. Nirenberg briefly reviews "La Présence Pure", by Christian Bobin in #91, December 2022
• Ricardo L. Nirenberg reviews Sarah White's A Poem has Reasons, Dos Madres Press, Loveland, Ohio, 2022, in #91, December 2022
• "The Dining Room Table: the View from Below", part of a memoir by Ricardo L. Nirenberg, Issue #91, December 2022
• "Early Music", part of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg in #90, September 2022
• "The Books in my Parents' House", part of a memoir by Ricardo L. Nirenberg in #89
• Ricardo Nirenberg reviews The Music of Light Regret, by Louis Phillips,World Audience Publishers, 2021, in #88
• "How Could They? Part II", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg in #88, March 2022
• "How Could They?", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg, in #87, December 2021
•  "Maison Cristina", a novel by Eugene K. Garber, ISBN: 978-0-9846994-8-3 Transformation Press 2021. Presented by Ricardo Nirenberg.
• "On the Seashore", a story by Ricardo Nirenberg
• R. Nirenberg reviews "A Portable Chaos", a novel by E.M. Schorb, and "The Thirteenth Studebaker", a collection of short stories by Robert Wexelblatt.
• "The Other Cheek", a story by Ricardo L. Nirenberg
• "The Meatball Hero", a story by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Then I could sleep", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Old Flames", a story by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Louis Nirenberg in a Dream", by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Paul Valéry and Some of His Contemptors"
• "P and Q: a Geometric Noir"
• "The Viking from Brooklyn": remembering Stan Johannesen.
• "The Sin Against the Human Spirit", an essay by Ricardo L. Nirenberg
• "Jiggs and Maggie", by Ricardo L. Nirenberg
• "An Old Man's Penumbra", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Roman Arena", a chapter from an abandoned novel by R. Nirenberg
• "My Thirteenth Year", part 6 and last of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg
• The Posthumous Papers of Sidney Fein, by Robert Wexelblatt, reviewed by R. Nirenberg
  ISBN 978-1-938349-88-1 Pelekinesis (www.pelekinesis.com) 2018.
• "The Fall of the House of Nordquist," by Eugene K. Garber, and "Matman and Testudo," by R.L. Swihart, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg.
• Reviews: Poems from Underground, by Francis Blessington, Deerbrook Ed. 2017,
  and Life and Opinions of Doctor Bop the Burnt-Out Prof and Other Poems, by E. M. Schorb, Kelsay Books, 2018.
• "My Thirteenth Year", part V of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg
• Matthew Phillips, The Island's Only Escape, Pleasure Boat Studio, 2018. Review by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Petites Suites"  by Robert Wexelblatt, reviewed by R. Nirenberg
• "My Thirteenth Year", part IV of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "My Thirteenth Year",Part III of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg
• And Then We Laughed: Poems by Louis Phillips. Prologue Press 2017, reviewed by R. Nirenberg
• S. K. Johannesen, Three Tales, The Electric Ferry Press 2017, ISBN 978-0-9881098-3-4, reviewed by R. Nirenberg
• "My Thirteenth Year", Part II of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg
• John Amen's "Illusion of an Overwhelm," NYQBooks 2017, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "The Thirteenth Year," Part I of a memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Two Zeides," a mini-memoir by Ricardo Nirenberg, Issue #67, Dec.2016
• "The Rapture of Eddy Daemon" (A Posthuman Homage to SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS), BlazeVOX, 2016, by Daniel Y. Harris. Reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg, Issue #67, Dec. 2016
• A review of Louis Armand's novel "The Combinations," Sept. 2016
• Yves Bonnefoy: In Memory of a Great Poet, Issue #66, Sept. 2016
• "Down and Up Cucha-Cucha Street," Issue #66, Sept. 2016
• "The Measure of our World," Issue #65 June 2016
• "Early Tango", an essay, Issue #64, March 2016
• "New Year Irresolutions", Issue #63, Dec. 2015. An essay dedicated to Janet Buck
• "Estoy hecho de vidrio, dijo...", a poem by Carlos Barbarito translated from the Spanish by Ricardo Nirenberg
• "Commencement", Issue #62, September 2015
• "Overflowing Love", Issue #61, June 2015
• "This month of May 2015 two events occurred, apparently unrelated...", commentary by Ricardo Nirenberg, June 2015.
• "On Nothing", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg, Issue #60, March 2015
• Strange Theater, by John Amen, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg
• A Poem by Carlos Barbarito translated by Ricardo Nirenberg.
• "Alexander Grothendiek: Memories of a Great Mathematician," by Ricardo Nirenberg, Issue #59, December 2014.
• Review of Sarah White's new book, The Unknowing Muse, by Ricardo Nirenberg.
• "Under the Dining Room Table", some early memories by Ricardo Nirenberg, #57 June 2014.
• "Frightful symmetry", in Per Contra #31.
• "The Art of Memory" by Ricardo Nirenberg.
• "Controlled Hallucinations" by John Sibley Williams, reviewed by R. Nirenberg.
• "Voyage to Greece, 1992" by Ricardo Nirenberg.
• Poems by Carlos Barbarito, translated from the Spanish by Ricardo Nirenberg.
• On Horace Ode I.28
• The Obama Hater
• Necrology.
• Two Poetry Books reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg: "The Last Man" by R. L. Swihart, Kanev Books, 2012, and "The New Arcana" by John Amen and Daniel Y. Harris, NYQ Books, 2012.
• "Uncle Abraham".
• "Ethical Triptych", March 2012.
• "Yves Bonnefoy Interprets Borges", November 2011.
• "When Astrology Works (a true story)", November 2011.
• "In The Beginning Was The Pun", Summer 2011.
• "Seven Peeks Into Infinity", Summer 2011.
• "Dmitri Shostakovich en Parque Patricios," a poem by Rodolfo Mattarollo with a translation by Ricardo Nirenberg. Fall 2010.
• "Regina's Sunday," a story by Ricardo Nirenberg. Fall 2010.
• "The 2010 World Cup", a topical outburst. Summer 2010.
• "The Twilight of the Humanities," an essay. Spring 2010.
• "After the Mayhem at Fort Worth", an essay. December 2009.
• "Two Top Scientists Discuss Life After Death", a story. December 2009.
• Logicomix, an Epic Search for Truth, by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou.  Art by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna.  Bloomsbury, New York, 2009. Reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg. December 2009.
• "The Element of Surprise", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg. September 2009.
• "The Truth Shall Make You Laugh" by Ricardo Nirenberg. September 2009.
• "At The Threshold of Alchemy" by John Amen, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg. September 2009.
• Words in Air: the Complete Correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell.  Edited by Thomas Travisano with Saskia Hamilton.  Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2008, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg. Spring 2009.
• MOM’S CANOE, by Rebecca Foust, Texas Review Press, Huntsville, Texas, 2008, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg. Spring 2009.
• "Everything is Possible", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg. January 2009.
• "Indignation", a novel by Philip Roth, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg. January 2009.
• The 2008 Elections by Ricardo Nirenberg. Fall 2008.
• Two Poems in Spanish by Carlos Barbarito with a translation by Ricardo Nirenberg. Summer 08.
• A poem in Spanish by Rodolfo Mattarollo with a translation by Ricardo Nirenberg. Summer 08
• "Dark Card", a new book of poems by Rebecca Foust, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg. Summer 08
• "The Southwest and the YMCA", a story by Ricardo Nirenberg. December 2007.
• "Poetry and Reality", Yes-but to a Lecture by Adam Zagajewski, by Ricardo Nirenberg. December 2007.
• Poems by Carlos Barbarito, translated by Ricardo Nirenberg. Spring 2007.
• "The Dissolution of Esthetics", essay by Ricardo Nirenberg. Spring 2007.
• "The Revolt against the Wall", an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg. Fall 2006.
• "Jorge Luis Borges and the European Visitors", by Ricardo Nirenberg. July 2006.
• "Burn the Happy Rabbi", by Ricardo Nirenberg. March 2006.
• Vienna 00, a new collection by Eugene Garber, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg. March 2006.
• "More of Me Disappears", a new book of poems by John Amen, reviewed by Ricardo Nirenberg. December 2005.
• "Arthur Rimbaud and Yves Bonnefoy: Two Poetics of the Imagination", by Ricardo Nirenberg, with translations from the French by the author. Fall 2005.
• The Blue Bubble by Ricardo Nirenberg. Spring 2005.
• "The Same, 1952,"  historical fiction by Ricardo Nirenberg. Winter 2005.
• "Loose Leaves from a German Journey", by Ricardo Nirenberg. Fall 2004.
• From the Editor: Inescapable Torture? by Ricardo Nirenberg. Summer 2004.
• "Baroque Dreams", by Ricardo Nirenberg. Summer 2004.
• "The Moralist in the Locker Room", an essay by Ricardo L. Nirenberg. Winter 2004
• "Beasts in their Wisdom" by Eugene K. Garber. Review by Ricardo L. Nirenberg. Winter 2004.
• "My Turn to Dream," a story by Ricardo Nirenberg. Summer 2003.
• "Big Stick," a story by Ricardo Nirenberg. November 2002.
• "Dada in Albany, NY," by Ricardo Nirenberg. November 2002.
• From my Private Journal:  September 11, 2001 , by Ricardo Nirenberg. Fall 2001.
• Academic Caplets, by Ricardo Nirenberg. Summer 2001.
• "Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus, I, XXIV and XXV", by Ricardo Lida Nirenberg. April 2001.
• "Caplets", by Ricardo Lida Nirenberg. December 2000.
• "Stories of Creation":  an essay by Ricardo Nirenberg. Summer 2000.
• Interview with Philip Schultz by Ricardo Nirenberg. Winter/Spring 2000.
• "Four Festering Sores":  short stories by Ricardo Nirenberg. Fall 1999.
• H, by Ricardo L. Nirenberg. Summer 1999.
• From the Editor, by Ricardo Nirenberg. Spring 1999
• "Witold Gombrowicz, or the Sadness of Form," by Ricardo Nirenberg (in English) (in Spanish) Fall 1998.
• River, Sea, Mother and Prostitute:  the poetry of Fredi Guthmann, by Ricardo Nirenberg. July 1998.
  (in English )  (in Spanish)