MEDARDO ARIAS-SATIZABAL.
Writer and journalist, was born in 1956 in Buenaventura Island , Colombia . His novel "Jazz para difuntos" was chosen for the "Pegaso" Latin American novel Prize in 1994 from among 483 works from he whole southern continent by a distinguished panel o jurors, including translators Gregory Ravassa, Margaret Sayers Peden, critic Alfonso Romano de Santa Ana , and the poets María Mercedes Carranza and Darío Jaramillo Agudelo. According to the argentine writer and critic Noé Jitrik, Arias novel is one of the most representive works of the "posboom", generation after Garcia Marquez in Colombia : "A polyphonic novel, attenuated, set in the midst of a menacing culture…"
His second novel "Que es un soplo la vida", was published by Alcayuela in Salamanca , Spain , in December 2000. In it, Arias Satizabal makes a metaphor of the cult of death- that constant in Latin America- by means of the tango singer Carlos Gardel's embalmed cadaver, that made the crossing of the Colombian Andes to the port of Buenaventura in 1936, in search of a ship bound for Buenos Aires . The poet Alvaro Miranda said of this work: "Medardo Arias recoups the figure of Carlos Gardel for the joy of literature". Eduardo Mendicutti notes: "He succeeds in infecting the reader with this captivating tone of the tango; it is a novel smiling and polemical".
Arias Satizabal is also known for his book of short stories "Esta risa no es de loco", winner of the National Story Prize "City of Bogota-Fifth Centennial of the Discovery",which was presented at the Expo Sevilla, Spain in 1992, By Educar Editores. He received the National Poetry Prize of the University of Antioquia , in 1987 for his book "Luces de Navegación". Others publications include "Las nueces del ruido" (Poetry, 1991), awarded "Luis Carlos Lopez National Poetry Prize" (Cartagena de Indias University), and "De la hostia y la bombilla, el Pacifico en prosa", an anthology of writers from the Colombian Pacific coast (1992), published by the Universidad del Valle Press, Cali. Since july 2000 he was taught for Southern Connecticut State University and the Colegio de Espana in Salamanca , Spain .
In 1981 Arias Satizabal completed an investigation on the origin of the Afro-Caribbean Salsa rhythm, published in installments in the Santiago de Cali daily, "Occidente". This work earned the Simon Bolivar National Prize, for "Best Investigation", and is regarded as a pioneering work in its genre, together with the work of the Venezuelan Cesar Miguel Rondon.
The author's works are recognized and published in the Collection of the Colombian Presidency, edited by Juan Gustavo Cobo-Borda, and in "Quién es quién en la poesía colombiana", selected and presented with a preface by Rogelio Echavarría.
From his travels in the south of Spain , he wrote a series for El Pais newspaper, entitled "Por la España Mora", impressions and observations of the traces of the caliphates and the Arab world in Cordoba , Seville , Toledo and Granada .
The author is also a screenwriter and director of sociological documentaries on popular music and on migrations, widely aired on Colombia TV. At various times he has worked as the Coordinator of the Department of Literature and the Press for the Interntional Festival of the Arts, Cali , where he hosted lectures by Elena Poniatowska, Juan Goytisolo, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, and Salvador Garmendia.
Arias-Satizabal has been a resident of Hartford , Connecticut , for twelve years. In addition to his continuing literary work and his activity as a lecturer in U.S. universities, he writes for the Colombian daily El País, and the Hartford community newspaper, "Identidad Latina". In 1998 was foreign correspondent for the Colombian magazine "Cambio", from New York . The Nobel Prize Gabriel Garcia Marquez was the Chief for this weekly
magazine.
El blog de Medardo
His second novel "Que es un soplo la vida", was published by Alcayuela in Salamanca , Spain , in December 2000. In it, Arias Satizabal makes a metaphor of the cult of death- that constant in Latin America- by means of the tango singer Carlos Gardel's embalmed cadaver, that made the crossing of the Colombian Andes to the port of Buenaventura in 1936, in search of a ship bound for Buenos Aires . The poet Alvaro Miranda said of this work: "Medardo Arias recoups the figure of Carlos Gardel for the joy of literature". Eduardo Mendicutti notes: "He succeeds in infecting the reader with this captivating tone of the tango; it is a novel smiling and polemical".
Arias Satizabal is also known for his book of short stories "Esta risa no es de loco", winner of the National Story Prize "City of Bogota-Fifth Centennial of the Discovery",which was presented at the Expo Sevilla, Spain in 1992, By Educar Editores. He received the National Poetry Prize of the University of Antioquia , in 1987 for his book "Luces de Navegación". Others publications include "Las nueces del ruido" (Poetry, 1991), awarded "Luis Carlos Lopez National Poetry Prize" (Cartagena de Indias University), and "De la hostia y la bombilla, el Pacifico en prosa", an anthology of writers from the Colombian Pacific coast (1992), published by the Universidad del Valle Press, Cali. Since july 2000 he was taught for Southern Connecticut State University and the Colegio de Espana in Salamanca , Spain .
In 1981 Arias Satizabal completed an investigation on the origin of the Afro-Caribbean Salsa rhythm, published in installments in the Santiago de Cali daily, "Occidente". This work earned the Simon Bolivar National Prize, for "Best Investigation", and is regarded as a pioneering work in its genre, together with the work of the Venezuelan Cesar Miguel Rondon.
The author's works are recognized and published in the Collection of the Colombian Presidency, edited by Juan Gustavo Cobo-Borda, and in "Quién es quién en la poesía colombiana", selected and presented with a preface by Rogelio Echavarría.
From his travels in the south of Spain , he wrote a series for El Pais newspaper, entitled "Por la España Mora", impressions and observations of the traces of the caliphates and the Arab world in Cordoba , Seville , Toledo and Granada .
The author is also a screenwriter and director of sociological documentaries on popular music and on migrations, widely aired on Colombia TV. At various times he has worked as the Coordinator of the Department of Literature and the Press for the Interntional Festival of the Arts, Cali , where he hosted lectures by Elena Poniatowska, Juan Goytisolo, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, and Salvador Garmendia.
Arias-Satizabal has been a resident of Hartford , Connecticut , for twelve years. In addition to his continuing literary work and his activity as a lecturer in U.S. universities, he writes for the Colombian daily El País, and the Hartford community newspaper, "Identidad Latina". In 1998 was foreign correspondent for the Colombian magazine "Cambio", from New York . The Nobel Prize Gabriel Garcia Marquez was the Chief for this weekly
magazine.
El blog de Medardo
