| Álvaro Mutis | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 August 1923 Colombia |
| Occupation | Poet and novelist |
| Genres | Fiction |
Álvaro Mutis Jaramillo (born August 25, 1923) is a Colombian poet, novelist, and essayist[1] and author of the compendium The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll.
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Mutis was born in Colombia and lived in Brussels from the age of two until eleven, where his father held a post as a diplomat. They would return to Colombia by ship for summer holidays. He has lived in Mexico City since 1956.
Mutis' poetry was first published in 1948 and his first short stories in 1978. His first novella featuring Maqroll, La nieve del Almirante (The Snow of the Admiral) was published in 1986 and gained him popular and critical acclaim. He has received many literary awards, including the Prix Médicis (France, 1989), Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Letras (Spain, 1997), Premio Miguel de Cervantes (Spain, 2001), and the Neustadt Prize for Literature (United States, 2002), for The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, a volume collecting all seven novellas about Maqroll the Gaviero.
Mutis has combined his career as a writer of poetry and prose with a diverse set of non-literary occupations. Like his protagonist Maqroll, Mutis traveled widely in his professional roles including five years as Standard Oil's public relations director and over 20 years as sales manager for Twentieth Century Fox and Columbia Pictures in their Latin American television divisions. Latin Americans first became familiar with his voice when he did the narration for the Spanish-language television version of The Untouchables.
The late Octavio Paz was a champion of Mutis' early poetry. In the 1950s, Mutis spent 15 months in a Mexican prison as a consequence of his handling of money intended for charitable use by Standard Oil. His experience in prison had a lasting influence on his life and work, and is chronicled in the book Diario de Lecumberri.
Mutis' works are most widely read in Latin America and Europe. He is best known for his novellas featuring Maqroll el Gaviero (Maqroll the Lookout), a wandering sailor and adventurer.
Mutis' close friend, Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel García Márquez called him "one of the greatest writers of our time." [2]