Mario Bellatin (born July 23, 1960,

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, Mexico) is a Mexican-born Peruvian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

Early life

Mario Bellatin was born in

to Peruvian parents. Soon after Mario was born, his parents returned to Lima. He spent two years studying theology at the seminary Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo and graduated from the University of Lima. In 1987, Bellatin moved to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, where he studied screenplay writing at the International Film School Latinoamericana. On his return to Mexico in 1995, he became the director of the area of Literature and Humanities at the

University of the Cloister of Sor Juana The University of the Cloister of Sor Juana ( es, Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana) is a private university located in the former San Jerónimo Convent in the historic center of Mexico City. This convent is best known for having been the home ...

and became a member of the National System of Creators of Art from 1999 to 2005. He is currently the director of the Dynamic School of Writers in Mexico City.

Career

Mario Bellatin is celebrated as a leading voice in Spanish fiction for his experimental and fragmented writing, which artfully intertwines reality and creation. His work is known in many parts of the world, with translations into English, German, French and Malayalam. However, while he has participated in writing workshops around the United States, his work is underrepresented in the English-speaking world. As a result of a birth defect that left him missing much of his right arm, a good portion of his fiction concerns characters that are deformed or diseased or with an uncertain sexual identity. Bellatin was quoted in ''The New York Times'' as saying, "To me literature is a game, a search for ways to break through borders. But in my work the rules of the game are always obvious, the guts are exposed, and you can see what is being cooked up.”

Awards and recognition

Bellatin is seen as a renewer in Peruvian literature.

Alonso Cueto Alonso Cueto Caballero (born 1954 in Lima, Peru) is a Peruvian author, university professor and newspaper columnist. His writing career has spanned nearly four decades, during which he has produced dozens of works of fiction, articles and essays ...

wrote of him: "''There is a new generation of writers in Peru that wishes to break with the usual form of writing realistic novels.

Iván Thays Iván Thays is a Peruvian author, professor and television host. Life Thays was born on October 21, 1968, in Lima. He studied languages and literature at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. After his study he continued as a professor at ...

and Mario Bellatin are the masters of this group of young writers.''" He has received positive reviews from other writers. For instance

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...

described him as "''one of the most interesting writers that have arisen in Latin America in recent years.''"

Anagrama Anagrama is a Spanish publisher founded in 1969 by Jorge Herralde. In 2010 it was sold to the Italian publisher Feltrinelli. Since 1969, Anagrama has published over 3,500 titles. currently, Anagrama publishes around 100 books annually, between t ...

biography
*

Premio Xavier Villaurrutia The Xavier Villaurrutia Award (Premio Xavier Villaurrutia) is a prestigious literary prize given in Mexico, to a Latin American writer published in Mexico. Founded in 1955, it was named in memory of Xavier Villaurrutia. Multiple awards have been g ...

for his novel ''Flores'', 200

*

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 ...

, Latin American and Caribbean Fellow, 200

*Premio Nacional de Literatura for ''El gran vidrio'' (''The Great Glass''), Instituto Municipal de Cultura, Turismo y Arte de Mazatlán, 200

*Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature Award Honor for ''Beauty Salon'', American Library Association, 201

*Doctor Honoris Causa, 17, Institute of Critical Studies, 2019.

Selected works

*''Flores'' (

, 2004) *''The Great Glass'' (Anagrama, 2007) *''Chinese Checkers'', trans. Cooper Renner (Ravenna Press, 2007) *''beauty parlor'', trans. Ratheesh (DC Books, 2011) *''Beauty Salon'', trans. Kurt Hollander (City Lights Publishers, 2009) *''Shiki Nagaoka: A Nose for Fiction'', trans. David Shook (Phoneme Medi

2013) *'' Jacob the Mutant'', trans. Jacob Steinberg (Phoneme Medi

2015) *''The Uruguayan Book of the Dead'', trans. David Shook (Phoneme Media, 2019)

References

External links

Bellatin in ''Molossus''Review of ''Beauty Salon''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...