María de la Luz Urriola González (9 June 1967 – 21 July 2023), most often known as Malú Urriola, was a Chilean poet, screenwriter and academic. She wrote seven books of poetry and won the 2006 Pablo Neruda Award. She was a professor at the

Catholic University of Chile The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. As a screenwriter, Urriola wrote for the television programs ' and '.

Early life and academia

Malú Urriola was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

on 9 June 1967. She began writing at the age of 14 and received a scholarship from the poetry workshop of the in 1986. Urriola earned a master's degree in scriptwriting in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Spain. She was a professor in the Faculty of Letters at the

Writing career

Urriola published her first book, ''Piedras rodantes'', in 1988 when she was 21. In 1994, she received a grant from the Fund for the Development of Arts and Culture ( FONDART) to publish her book ''Dame tu sucio amor''. Urriola received another FONDART grant in 2002 for her project with Nadia Prado, ''Poesía es +: Lectura de poesía desde globos aerostáticos''. The project was an urban intervention that included a plane that flew over the

Parque Forestal Parque Forestal is an urban park in the city of Santiago, Chile. The park was created on reclaimed land from the Mapocho River and is located in the historical downtown of Santiago, west of Plaza Baquedano and east of Estación Mapocho. It is borde ...

in Santiago with a banner reading "Y si la jaula estuviera siempre abierta" ("And if the cage were always open"), a balloon that flew over the port of

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

with the phrase "Los ojos son libres" ("The eyes are free") and a banner at the

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...

with the word "Memoria" ("Memory"). Urriola wrote scripts for feature films, series and soap operas. She was a writer for the television programs ''Los Venegas'' and ''La vida es una lotería''. In 2004, she received the Best Television Contribution Award from the Servicio Nacional de la Mujer for her 2003 script for "Sofía (Una historia de maltrato a la Mujer)", from the

Televisión Nacional de Chile Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) is a Chilean public service broadcaster. It was founded by order of President Eduardo Frei Montalva and it was launched nationwide on 18 September 1969. Since then, the company has been reorganized on several ...

series ''Cuentos de Mujeres''. She also wrote for ''

The Sentimental Teaser ''The Sentimental Teaser'' ( es, El Chacotero Sentimental) is a 1999 Chilean film directed by Cristián Galaz. The protagonist is a DJ named Rumpy, and his listeners call in to the radio station to tell their stories. A 2007 sequel was released ...

'' (1999), ''Los simuladores'' (2005–2006) and ''Lola'' (2007–2008). Her works for theater include ''El último beso'' (2001) and ''La noche del accidente'' (2011). Urriola's works have been included in a number of poetry anthologies, including ''16 poetas chilenos'', ''Antología de la poesía latinoamericana del siglo XXI'', ''Antología de poetas chilenas. Confiscación y silencio'', and ''Mujeres poetas de Chile: muestra Antológica 1980–1995''. Urriola died on July 21, 2023, at age 56.

Awards

Urriola won the Pablo Neruda Award in 2006. Her writing also earned her the

Santiago Municipal Literature Award The Santiago Municipal Literature Award ( es, Premio Municipal de Literatura de Santiago) is one of the oldest and most important literary awards in Chile Created in 1934 by the municipality of Santiago, its first edition awarded the categories of ...

and an award from the for her collection ''Nada'' in 2004. In 2019, she received the Premio a la Trayectoria Poética Pablo Neruda.

Works

*''Piedras rodantes'' (1988) *''Dame tu sucio amor'' (1994) *''Hija de perro'' (1998) *''Nada'' (2003) *''Bracea'' (2007) *''Cadáver exquisito'' (2017) *''El cuaderno de las cosas inútiles'' (2022) *''La luz que me ciega'' with photographer

Paz Errázuriz Paz Errázuriz (born 2 February 1944 in Santiago, Chile) is a Chilean photographer. Errázuriz documented marginalized communities such as sex workers, psychiatric patients, and circus performers during the military dictatorship of Chile. Errázur ...

(2010) *''La noche en el espejo'' (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urriola, Malú 1967 births 2023 deaths Chilean women poets Chilean LGBT poets 20th-century Chilean poets 21st-century Chilean poets Writers from Santiago Academic staff of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile