Arturo Arias (

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nest ...

, 1950) is a Guatemalan novelist and critic. His early life was marked by the overthrow of democracy in 1954, and the ensuing military dictatorships and civil rebellions. These experiences, along with a visit to refugee camps on the Guatemala-Mexico border in 1982, sparked his dedication to peoples and Indigenous rights and inspired his scholarly research.

Career

Arias is a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur professor of 20th-century Spanish-American Literature at the

University of California, Merced The University of California, Merced (UC Merced) is a public land-grant research university and Hispanic-serving institution located in Merced, California, and is the tenth and newest of the University of California (UC) campuses. Established ...

. He has taught courses specializing in: Central American literature; Indigenous literatures; social and critical theory; race, gender and sexuality in post-colonial societies; cultural studies, and ethnographic approaches. Arias previously taught at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

, the

University of Redlands The University of Redlands is a private university headquartered in Redlands, California. The university's main, residential campus is situated on 160 acres (65 ha) near downtown Redlands. An additional eight regional locations throughout Califo ...

in Southern California, and the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, where he was the Tomás Rivera Regents Professor in Spanish Language and Literature. He is a past president of the

Latin American Studies Association The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is the largest association for scholars of Latin American studies. Founded in 1966, it has over 12,000 members, 45 percent of whom reside outside the United States (36 percent in Latin America and the C ...

. He holds a PhD in Sociology of Literature, from L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Paris, France. (1978) Arias has held several prestigious fellowships—the Guggenheim (John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation), the Hood (University of Auckland) and the Martha Sutton Weeks (Stanford Humanities Center)--as well as distinguished visiting posts at Princeton,

Tulane Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...

, and the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. Arias has published numerous novels, as well as scholarly books and journal articles, in English and Spanish. He received the

Casa de las Américas Prize The Casa de las Américas Prize (''Premio Literario Casa de las Américas'') is a literary award given by the Cuban Casa de las Américas. Established in 1959, it is one of Latin America’s oldest and most prestigious literary prizes. The award ...

for his novel ''Itzam Na'' (1981), the Anna Seghers award for his novel ''Jaguar en llamas'' (1990), and the Casa de las Américas prize in essay for his book ''Ideología, Literatura y Sociedad durante la Revolución Guatemalteca, 1944-1954'' (1979). In 2008, he was honored with the Miguel Angel Asturias National Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature in his native

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. His books in English include '' Recovering Lost Footprints: Contemporary Maya Narratives. Volumes 1 and 2,'' ''The Rigoberta Menchú Controversy,'' ''Taking their Word: Literature and the Signs of Central America,'' ''After the Bombs,'' and ''Rattlesnake.''

List of works in English

*. Trans. Asa Zatz. *. * *''Rattlesnake'' Curbstone Press (2003) (spy thriller)

Awards

Anna Seghers Anna Seghers (; born ''Anna Reiling,'' 19 November 1900 – 1 June 1983), is the pseudonym of a German writer notable for exploring and depicting the moral experience of the Second World War. Born into a Jewish family and married to a Hungarian ...

Prize 1990 for his novel ''Jaguar en llamas'' *Academy Award Nomination 1985 for Best Original Screenplay (El Norte); co-writer *

1981 for his novel ''Itzam-Na'' *

1979 for his essay ''Ideologías, literatura y sociedad durante la revolución guatemalteca 1944-1954'' *Miguel Angel Asturias National Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature 2008 *

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

2020

References

Arturo Arias - Academic Biography

Arturo Arias - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Guatemalan novelists Guatemalan male writers Male novelists Latin Americanists Living people 1950 births {{Guatemala-writer-stub