Enrique Lihn

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Enrique Lihn (b. 1929) was a Chilean poet, playwright, and novelist.

Born in 1929 at Santiago, Chile, Lihn aspired to be a painter but after a failed attempt during university, he abandoned that dream to pursue writing. Lihn proceeded to develop into a well known poet, playwright, and novelist. He taught literature at the University of Chile. Lihn views both the past and the future as forms of death, and his emphasis on this point is evident throughout his literary works. His work revolved around his contempt for the contemporary dictatorship, as Chile was governed by a military junta. Works layered with social, political, and religious commentary are common throughout Lihn's canon. His final book, Diario de Muerte was written in the six weeks preceding his death from cancer--the evening before he died, he corrected the proofs.^[1]