Eugenio Montejo (Caracas, 1938 - Valencia, Venezuela, 2008) was a poet, essayist, editor, and diplomat; his verse collections include: Élegos (1967); Muerte y Memoria (1972); Algunas Palabras (1976); Terredad (1978); Trópico Absoluto (1982); Alfabeto del Mundo (1986); Adiós al siglo XX (1992); Partitura de la cigarra (1999); Papiros amorosos (2002) y Fábula del escriba (2006). The majority of his essayistic work is collected in two volumes: La ventana oblicua (1974) and El taller blanco (1983). He also published many books under alternative names: El cuaderno de Blas Coll (1981); Guitarra del horizonte (by Sergio Sandoval, 1991); El hacha de seda (by Tomás Linden; 1995); Chamario (by Eduardo Polo, 2004), and La caza del relámpago (by Lino Cervantes, 2006). Among other honors, we was awarded the National Literature Prize in 1998 and the Octavio Paz International Prize for Poetry and Essay in 2004. An important volume of critical writing has been published on his work, which boasts a significant number of re-editions, extensions, and anthological volumes in several countries and in various languages.
In Safari accidental [Accidental safari] (2005), Juan Villoro memorably identifies the chronicle as the “duckbill platypus of prose.” This animal was first inspected by a Western scientist in England in…
In LALT 1.4 (October 31, 2017) I published an essay detailing some of the controversies involved with Chilean poet Juan Luis Martínez’s (1942-1993) posthumous body of work. This literary…
Wayuu literature, letter by letter, has formed a long tradition since Los dolores de una raza [The pains of a race] by Antonio López (1957), Mitos, leyendas y cuentos guajiros…
