We’ve written before about Colombian culture and the country’s artistic exports. It’s a country full of artistic inspiration, talented writers, painters, and the amount of museums, galleries and culture festivals here in Colombia is testament to that. But it’s not all about celebrating Colombia’s past achievements in the world of art – today (Monday 21st March 2011), the highly-coveted Alfaguara Literary Prize was awarded to Bogota-born Juan Gabriel Vasquez for his book El ruido de las cosas al caer (The Sound of Things Falling).
The novel follows Antonio Yammara, whose memory is fired into action when a hippopotamus escapes from Pablo Escobar’s infamous zoo. When announcing the award, the jury announced “a black stocktaking of an epoch of terror and violence, in a Bogota described as a literary territory full of significant happenings”.
It’s not the first time Juan Gabrial Vasquez has been recognised for his contributions to Latin American literature. In Colombia his novel The Informers was selected as one of the most significant pieces of Colombian literature of the past 25 years and The Secret History of Costaguana was awarded the Qwerty Prize for Spanish language novel.
The award comes just in time for Bogota’s annual book fair in May 2011. Since Juan Gabriel Vasquez is Bogota born and bred, you can expect a great amount of buzz at this year’s event, and so for culture vultures May would be a fantastic time to visit Colombia’s vibrant capital city.
Of course, lovers of Colombian literature and Colombian culture would also want to combine a trip to Cartagena, Colombia’s most famous city that Gabriel Garcia Marquez once called home.
Ryan
