Luis López Nieves (born January 17, 1950) is a Puerto Rican author. He has collaborated with several newspapers and written two TV miniseries. He has written the scripts for PSA advertisements. He has been visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston and was a

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

Fellow.

Education and career

López Nieves created and is the director of the first Master's Program in Creative Writing of Latin America, at the

Universidad del Sagrado Corazón Universidad del Sagrado Corazón (English: University of the Sacred Heart), abbreviated "USC" and often called simply Sagrado, is a private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is one of the oldest and larg ...

, in San Juan. López Nieves studied at the

University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus The University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (; UPR-RP, or informally La IUPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is the largest campus in the University of Puer ...

and was in a course taught by

René Marqués René Marqués (October 4, 1919 – March 22, 1979) was a Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican short story writer and playwright. Early years Marqués was born, raised and educated in the city of Arecibo. He developed an interest in writing at a ...

, which he says changed his life, knowing then he wanted to write-not study law, as he had originally planned. López Nieves has a BA in General Studies from the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

; also an MA in Hispanic Literature and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, both from

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

. During two year he wrote his column Byzantine Letters (Cartas Bizantinas) in the largest newspaper of Puerto Rico, '' El Nuevo Día''.

Ciudad Seva

On December 12, 1995, he founded Ciudad Seva, a website that has received more than 63 million visitors. The site was launched out of curiosity, as a way for López Nieves to keep in touch with his family and friends. He chose "'' Seva''", the title of his first book, as the name of the site. The website features almost all publicly known information about the author and his writings. Founded in April 2001, th
Ciudad Seva Digital Library
is a major attraction of the site. Begun as a way for the author to post useful stories for his students and courses, it now houses more than 3000 classic

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

. In addition to its digital library function, the site houses numerous literary Internet forums, including one for the

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...

of writings and the exchange of ideas for improving each other's work. In addition, visitors can subscribe to a weekly classic short story via

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

Retirement

In August 2019 he retired from his job as professor after 30 years at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, where he had mentored many writers.

Publications

His books ''The True Death of Juan Ponce de León'' (2000) and ''Voltaire's Heart'' (2005) have won the National Literature Prize. Additional books he has published include ''Seva'' and ''Writing for Rafa''. His short stories have been published 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 ...

n and Spanish anthologies. In 2009 he published his latest novel
Galileo's Silence
(El silencio de Galileo), simultaneously in Spain and in Latin America.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''El corazón de Voltaire'', 2005, Grupo Editorial Norma, Colombia. (''Voltaire's Heart''.) * ''El corazón de Voltaire'', 2007, Belacqva, Spain. (''Voltaire's Heart''.) * ''El silencio de Galileo'', La Otra Orilla (Grupo Editorial Norma), Bogotá, Colombia, junio 2009, pp. 338. (''Galileo's Silence'') * ''El silencio de Galileo'', Mosaico (Grupo Editorial Norma), Barcelona, España, julio 2009, pp. 333. (''Galileo's Silence'')

Short stories

* ''Seva'' (one of Puerto Rico's most celebrated short stories), 1984, Grupo Editorial Norma, Colombia. * ''Escribir para Rafa'', 1987, Grupo Editorial Norma, Colombia. (''Writing for Rafa''.) * ''La verdadera muerte de Juan Ponce de León'', 2000, Grupo Editorial Norma, Colombia. (''The True Death of Juan Ponce de León''.)

Short story anthologies

* ''El cuento hispanoamericano'' (Seymour Menton, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, Seventh Edition, 2003). * ''El cuento hispanoamericano en el siglo XX'' (Fernando Burgos, Editorial Castalia, Madrid, 1997). * ''El muro y la intemperie: El nuevo cuento latinoamericano'' (Julio Ortega, Ediciones del Norte, New Hampshire, USA, 1989). * ''Cuentos para ahuyentar el turismo'' (Vitalina Alfonso y Emilio Jorge Rodríguez, Editorial Arte y Literatura, La Habana, Cuba, 1991). * ''Writing Between the Lines'' (Bowen & Weigel,

University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...

, Amherst, MA, USA, 1997). * ''Die Horen'' (Wilfried Böhringer, Germany, Year 42, 3rd Quarter, Edition 187, 1997). * ''Los nuevos caníbales: Antología de la más reciente cuentística del caribe hispano'' (Bobes, Valdez y Gómez Beras, Editorial Isla Negra -joint publishing with Ediciones Unión/Cuba and Editorial Búho/Dominican Republic-, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2000).

References

External links

Ciudad Seva
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez Nieves, Luis Puerto Rican writers Living people 1950 births University of Puerto Rico alumni Stony Brook University alumni Universidad del Sagrado Corazón alumni