Juan Sebastián Cárdenas (born 1978) is a Colombian writer and translator. He was born in
Popayán
Popayán () is the capital of the Colombian department of Cauca. It is located in the Pubenza Valley in southwestern Colombia between the Western Mountain Range and Central Mountain Range. The municipality has a population of 318,059, an a ...
in the southwestern province of
Cauca. He studied philosophy at the
Javeriana University of
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
before moving to
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
in 1998, where he continued his studies at
Complutense University
The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...
and worked for several publishing houses. He has published half a dozen works of fiction. As a translator, he has translated works by American writers such as
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...
,
Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist and short story writer. He is known largely for his first novel, '' Look Homeward, Angel'' (1929), and for the short fiction that appeared during the last ye ...
and
Gordon Lish
Gordon Lish (born February 11, 1934) is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Rick Bass, Tom Spanbauer, and Richard Ford. He is the father of the no ...
, Portuguese author
Eça de Queirós and Brazilian author
Machado de Assis
Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (), often known by his surnames as Machado de Assis, ''Machado,'' or ''Bruxo do Cosme Velho''Vainfas, p. 505. (21 June 1839 – 29 September 1908), was a pioneer Brazilian people, Brazilian novelist, poet, playwr ...
.
In 2017, he was named as one of the
Bogota39, a selection of the best young writers in
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
.
In September 2023 the English translation of '' El diablo de las provincias'' (''The Devil of the Provinces'') was longlisted for the
National Book Award for Translated Literature.
Bibliography
Novels
* ''Zumbido'' (2010)
* ''Los estratos'' (2013) (VI Premio Otras Voces, Otros Ámbitos)
* ''Ornamento'' (2015); ''Ornamental'' trans. Lizzie Davis (Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 2020)
* ''Tú y yo, una novelita rusa'' (2015)
* ''El diablo de las provincias'' (2017) (Premio de Narrativa José María Arguedas, 2019); ''The Devil of the Provinces'', trans. Lizzie Davis (Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 2023)
* ''Elástico de sombra'' (2019)
* ''Peregrino transparente'' (2023)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cárdenas, Juan
21st-century Colombian writers
1978 births
Living people