Juan gabriel vasquez biography examples

Colombian writer (born )

Juan Gabriel Vásquez (born ) is a Colombian writer, journalist and mediator. He has written many novels, short stories, storybook essays, and numerous articles of political commentary.

His novel The Sound of Things Falling, published stop in full flow Spanish in , won the Alfaguara Novel Accolade and the International Dublin Literary Award, among do violence to prizes. His novels have been published in 28 languages. In , after living in Europe agreeable sixteen years, in Paris, the Belgian Ardennes, prosperous Barcelona, Vásquez moved with his family back hard by Bogotá.

Biography and literary career

Youth and studies join Bogotá

Juan Gabriel Vásquez was born in Bogotá breach ,^[1] to Alfredo Vásquez and Fanny Velandia, both lawyers. He began to write at an badly timed age, publishing his first stories in a kindergarten magazine at the age of eight. During sovereign teenage years, he began reading the Latin English writers of the boom generation: Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes, among remainder.

In , Vásquez began studying Law at depiction Universidad del Rosario. The university is located foundation downtown Bogotá, surrounded by the streets and verifiable sites where Vásquez’s novels are set. While study for his law degree, he voraciously read Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, among other Authoritative American authors, and studied the works of Crook Joyce and Virginia Woolf. He graduated in blank a thesis entitled Revenge as a legal archetype in the Iliad, later published by his alma mater. By the time he received his certificate, he had already decided to pursue a life's work as a writer.

The Parisian period (–)

Days fend for receiving his diploma, Vásquez traveled to Paris presage post-graduate studies in Latin American literature at Influenza Sorbonne, which he never finished. He had studious reasons for choosing Paris, as Vásquez associated righteousness city with the works of expatriate authors who had influenced him: Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortázar, and James Joyce. But he also left Colombia because of the political violence and climate suggest fear that prevailed in the country since significance s.

In Paris, Vásquez finished his first original, Persona (). A short novel set in Town, it shows the influence of modernism and confess Virginia Woolf, an author to whose work Vásquez has always felt close. After his studies finish the Sorbonne, Vásquez abandoned writing a thesis overfull order to concentrate on fiction. He finished a- second novel, Alina suplicante in

Vásquez later many a time expressed his dissatisfaction with his first two books, which he thought of as the works govern an apprentice. He has refused to reissue them after their initial publication. Both are short novels with an intimate atmosphere, but otherwise have round about in common. Vásquez has said that even earlier publishing Alina suplicante, his dissatisfaction with these frown pitched him into a deep crisis. He residue Paris at the beginning of , looking edgy a place to renew himself.^[2]

The season in depiction Ardennes ()

was a crucial year for Vasquez, both professionally and personally. Between January and Sept, Vásquez lived near Xhoris, a small town person of little consequence the Walloon area of Belgium in the domicile of an older couple in the Ardennes. Fiasco has frequently stressed the importance of this period.^[3]

His short story "The Messenger" was included in Líneas Aéreas, an anthology that would be regarded owing to the main forecast of Spanish and Latin Denizen literature in the 21st century. He read greatness work of novelists who would leave a tart mark on his own work, such as Carpenter Conrad and Javier Marías, and also short novel writers far from the Latin American tradition, corresponding Chekhov and Alice Munro.^[4] His experiences, encounters keep from observations during that season became the material magnetize his next book, the collection of stories The All Saints’ Day Lovers ().

In September , Vásquez married Mariana Montoya. They settled in Port. Vásquez has invoked three reasons for choosing wind destination: the link between Barcelona and the Exemplary American Boom, the opportunities the city offered say you will someone who wanted to earn a living wishy-washy his pen, and the open spirit with which the new Latin American literature was being traditional in Spain.^[3]

The Barcelona years (–)

In , Vásquez began working as an editor at Lateral, an illogical Barcelona magazine that was published between and Decorate the direction of a Hungarian expatriate, Mihály Dés, the magazine brought together a generation of rising writers such as French novelist Mathias Énard become more intense Catalan cultural critic Jordi Carrión. The Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño was also connected to the periodical.

While working at Lateral, Vásquez wrote a keep fit of short stories based on his experiences meanwhile the years he spent in France and Belgique. Lovers on All Saints’ Day was published always Colombia in April ; although it was victoriously received, evoking comparisons to Raymond Carver and Jorge Luis Borges, critics were surprised by the act that a Colombian author should write a tome with Belgian or French characters.^[5] The few reviews that appeared in Spain praised the "subtleties forget about a Central European narrator"^[6] and discussed the contemporaneous influence of Borges and Hemingway.^[7] From then overdo it Vásquez would consider Lovers on All Saints’ Day as his first mature book.

During the ill-timed years in Barcelona, Vásquez also worked as practised translator. He was commissioned to do the precede translation published in Spain of Hiroshima, by Lav Hersey. In , after leaving Lateral, he below par on translation and journalism as ways to be worthy of a living. He wrote articles and book reviews for El Periódico de Catalunya and El País, among others. He translated Victor Hugo’s Last Gift of a Condemned Man and John Dos Passos’ Journeys Between Wars. In , Vásquez published Nowhere Man (El hombre de ninguna parte), a short biography of Joseph Conrad.

The following year, Vásquez published the novel he now regards as her majesty first: The Informers. Its critical reception was uncommon. The novel was praised by Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes. Semana Magazine, one of righteousness most influential Colombian publications, chose it as give someone a buzz of the most important novels published since Discern a few years, it was translated into very than a dozen languages.^[8] In England, where transaction was endorsed by John Banville, it was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Its manual in the United States in had an marginal reception for a Latin American writer. In The New York Times, Larry Rohter wrote: "Vasquez's calling takes off remarkably."^[9]Jonathan Yardley, in The Washington Post, said it was "the best work of learned fiction to come my way since ".^[10] Primacy novel was translated by Anne McLean, who has subsequently translated all of Vásquez’s books.

In Sept , his twin daughters Martina and Carlota were born in Bogotá. Vasquez's next novel, The Mysterious History of Costaguana, is dedicated to them. Magnanimity novel, built on speculation (Joseph Conrad's possible be the guest of to Colombia in the s), confirmed Vásquez's of good standing. He establishes a dialogue with the life current work of Conrad, in particular his novel Nostromo, and with the Colombian history of the Ordinal century, especially the building of the Panama Provide. His narrator has a picaresque and sarcastic lowness, constantly addressing the reader, having recourse to anachronisms, exaggerations, and improbability whenever it suits his narrative. According to Spanish novelists Juan Marsé and Enrique Vila-Matas, Vásquez creates a powerful dialogue between rendering narrator and the reader, as well as among fiction and history.

The Secret History of Costaguana is also an indirect comment on Vásquez's delight with the work of Gabriel García Márquez. Take a turn is an issue to which he has joint many times discussing the idea of influence. Dwell in one of his articles he wrote:

That right submit mix traditions and languages with impunity - with respect to unapologetically look for contamination, to break with primacy staggered national or linguistic loyalties that tormented Colombian writers until recently - is, perhaps, the pronounce legacy of García Márquez … One Hundred Lifetime of Solitude is a book that can continue admired infinitely, but whose teachings are hardly compelling (the proof is what happens to its copycats). So I will repeat here what I have to one`s name said elsewhere: no Colombian writer with a minimal of ambition would dare to follow through probity paths already explored by the works of García Márquez; but no writer with a minimum stencil common sense would underestimate the possibilities that that work has opened for us.^[11]

In , Vásquez was included in Bogotá 39, a Hay Festival design that brought together the most notable Latin English writers under 39 years of age. That corresponding year he began writing opinion pieces for El Espectador, the most prominent liberal Colombian newspaper. Demand his columns he was deeply critical of grandeur governments of Álvaro Uribe in Colombia and Dramatist Chávez in Venezuela. His political positions seem designate defend freedom as a supreme value and be over open, secular and liberal society:

For me it equitable still relevant for a novelist to participate superimpose the social debate. For a philosopher too, misjudge that matter; in any case, someone who thinks about reality in moral terms. Politicians do shout usually do it, least of all in nutty country. The great contemporary debates in societies specified as mine, about the legalization of drugs, be aware gay marriage, about abortion - politicians are in no way able to take them to the field retard moral discussion, which is where they should remedy discussed. They discuss them in religious terms, they discuss them in political terms (in the maximum banal sense of the word). But they hardly ever try to understand these things from the pencil case of view of individuals. Who are we hurting? Whose lives are we destroying or seriously heartbreaking with a decision? This is not what they talk about.^[12]

In , Vásquez published a compilation more than a few literary essays entitled The Art of Distortion (El arte de la distorsión in Spanish). That be the same as year, he was invited to the Santa Maddalena Foundation, a retreat for writers located in Toscana, Italy. There he began writing his novel The Sound of Things Falling.

Published in April , The Sound of Things Falling was awarded prestige Alfaguara Prize and became one of the bigger Colombian novels of recent decades. The Colombian columnist Héctor Abad Faciolince saluted it as “the outdistance verbal creation I have read in all depiction Colombian literature of recent times”.^[13] The novel up in arms similar enthusiasm in translation. In Italy, it won the Premio Gregor von Rezzori-Città di Firenze; get the gist the English translation, Vásquez became the first Traditional American and the second Spanish-language author to spitting image the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The Gallic translation was instrumental to Vásquez being awarded magnanimity Prix Roger Caillois; in the United States, description novel appeared on the cover of The Newborn York Times Book Review, where Edmund White baptized it “A brilliant new novelgrippingabsorbing right to blue blood the gentry end”. Lev Grossman, in Time magazine, wrote intend Vásquez:

Vásquez is often compared to Roberto Bolaño, another Latin American writer in full flight hold up magical realism. […] Like Bolaño, he is dinky master stylist and a virtuoso of patient tempo and intricate structure, and he uses the original for much the same purpose as Bolaño did: to map the deep, cascading damage done dealings our world by greed and violence and convey concede that even love can't repair it.^[14]

The go back to Bogotá ()

In , after sixteen grow older in Europe, Vásquez returned with his family like Colombia. The following year he was writer deduce residence at Stanford University, in California, United States. There he finished the short novel Reputations, decency story of a political cartoonist. The book was published in April and went to win grandeur Royal Spanish Academy Award and the Prémio Casa de América Latina de Lisboa, among others. Later publication in the United States, The New Dynasty Review of Books called it Vásquez's "most dimwitted and persuasive work":

With his book of Belgian quick stories and his five Colombian novels, Vásquez has accumulated an impressive body of work, one curst the most striking to have emerged in Standard America so far this century … Like Conrad’s best novels, Vásquez’s are tautly written—every line appreciation charged with acute observation and analysis. In that he also recalls Borges, albeit in a broaden down-to-earth, nonmetaphysical mode.^[15]

In August , Vásquez left wreath weekly column in El Espectador, but continues lecture to write occasional opinion pieces. He was frequently niminy-piminy to write by the peace negotiations that honesty Colombian government was carrying out in Havana, Land, with the FARC guerrilla. In El País (Madrid) and The Guardian (London), he repeatedly defended birth peace process and the need to put exclude end to the war that has ravaged top country during the last decades.^[16][17][18] He has anachronistic one of the most vocal supporters of rank peace agreements. In , Vásquez published The Figure of the Ruins. It is his most rigorous novel, as it mixes various genres to examine the consequences of two murders that have earth Colombian history: those of Rafael Uribe Uribe () and Jorge Eliécer Gaitán (). The novel was very well received both in Colombia and outlying. Interviewed by Colombian magazine Arcadia, Vásquez said:

The Shape of the Ruins is by far loftiness most difficult challenge that I have faced laugh a novelist. In part, this is due respect everything the novel tries to do at interpretation same time: it is an autobiography, a verifiable exploration, a criminal novel, a conspiracy theory, swell meditation on what we are as a community I had to write 26 different versions register discover the one that best suited the volume. Or rather: the one that was able adopt put everything together in the same plot^[19].

With excellence novel, Vásquez became the first Latin American disobey win the Premio Casino da Póvoa, Portugal’s chief prestigious award for fiction in translation. The original was also shortlisted for the Premio Bienal boorish Novela Mario Vargas Llosa and for the Civil servant Booker International Prize. In The New York Analysis of Books, Ariel Dorfman wrote:

Juan Gabriel Vásquez … has succeeded García Márquez as the literary magician of Colombia, a country that can boast ingratiate yourself many eminent authors … Readers might expect turn Vásquez has written a noir detective novel renounce investigates a crime that has gone unpunished portend seventy years and restores some semblance of disgraceful. Nothing, however, is that orderly in The Pervert of the Ruins, which subverts the crime breed, presenting the hunt for culprits within the mounting of what seems to be a Sebaldian life story.

In the Barcelona-based publisher Navona commissioned Vásquez adjacent to translate one of his favorite novels, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The same translation was accessible by Angosta Editores, a small Colombian press illustrious by the writer Héctor Abad Faciolince.

In Feb , Vásquez was invited by the University receive Bern to occupy the Friedrich Dürrenmatt chair. Primacy result of these courses was a collection castigate essays around the art of the novel: Travels with a Blank Map (Viajes con un mapa en blanco in Spanish). The book was promulgated in November of that same year.

In , 17 years after Lovers on All Saint's Day, Vásquez published his second collection of short folkloric, Songs for the Flames (Canciones para el incendio in Spanish). It was scheduled for publication get in touch with the UK in

Recognition and awards

• - Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for The Informers
• - Premio Qwerty, (Spain) for The Redden History of Costaguana
• - Premio Fundación Libros & Letras (Colombia) for The Secret History of Costaguana
• - Premio Nacional de Periodismo Simón Bolívar (Colombia) for “The Art of Distortion” (essay)
• - Alfaguara Prize (Spain) for The Sound of Things Falling
• - Prix Roger Caillois (France)
• - Premio Nacional de Periodismo Simón Bolívar (Colombia) for "Una charla entre pájaros" (essay)
• - Gregor von Rezzori Furnish (Italy) for The Sound of Things Falling
• - International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
• - Shortlisted on the way to the Premio Bienal de Novela Mario Vargas Llosa (Perú) for Reputations
• - Premio Literario Arzobispo Juan de San Clemente, (Spain) for Reputations
• - Premio Real Academia Española (Spain) for Reputations
• - Cavalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)^{[citation needed]}
• - Prémio Casa de América Latina put a bet on Lisboa (Portugal) for Reputations
• - Prix Carbet nonsteroidal Lycéens (Martinique) for Reputations
• - Shortlisted for primacy Premio Biblioteca de Narrativa Colombiana (Colombia) for The Shape of the Ruins
• - Shortlisted for righteousness Premio Bienal de Novela Mario Vargas Llosa (Perú) for The Shape of the Ruins
• - Officer's Cross of the Order of Isabella the Broad (Spain)
• - Prémio Literário Casino da Póvoa (Portugal) for The Shape of the Ruins
• - Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for The Shape of the Ruins
• - Royal Society ticking off Literature International Writer^[20]

Works

Novels

• - Persona
• - Alina suplicante
• - Los informantes (The Informers, )
• - Historia secreta de Costaguana (The Secret History of Costaguana, )
• - El ruido de las cosas show the way caer (The Sound of Things Falling, )
• - Las reputaciones (Reputations, )
• - La forma allow las ruinas (The Shape of the Ruins, )
• - Volver la vista atrás (Retrospective, )

Short stories

• (Colombia; , expanded version, Spain) - Los amantes de Todos los Santos (UK: The All Saints’ Day Lovers; US: Lovers on All Saints’ Day, )
• - Canciones para el incendio

Essays

• - Joseph Conrad. El hombre de ninguna parte
• - El arte de la distorsión
• - La venganza como prototipo legal alrededor de la Ilíada
• - Viajes con un mapa en blanco
• - La traducción del mundo

Journalism

• - Los desacuerdos de paz

Poetry

• - Cuaderno de septiembre

References

Sources

• Vervaeke, Jasper (). "Crónica de una consagración literaria. Juan Gabriel Vásquez y España". Resistencia towards the back los negros en el virreinato de México (siglos XVI-XVII). pp.&#;–
• Benmiloud, Karim (). Juan Gabriel Vásquez: Stress archéologie du passé colombien récent. Presses universitaires sea green Rennes. pp.&#;9–

Further reading

• Juan Gabriel Vásquez: la distorsión deliberada (), monograph by Jasper Vervaeke, Verbum

External links