Elías Nandino

Elías Nandino (April 19, 1900 – October 3, 1993) was a Mexican poet.

Biography

Nandino was born in Cocula, Jalisco. He studied medicine and practiced as a surgeon at different hospitals during most of his life. His first poems were influenced by Los Contemporáneos ("The Contemporaries" in Spanish), a Mexican modernist group of poets, particularly by Xavier Villaurrutia and José Gorostiza. His early poetry was rather sombre, focusing on topics like death, nighttime and dreams. From the 1950s his poetry became more personal, whereas his later poems combined eroticism and metaphysics.

He was editor of several publications and promoter of writing workshops. In the last years of his life he received numerous awards both for his career as a poet and for his support to literature in Mexico, such as the Aguascalientes National Poetry Prize (1979) and the National Prize for Literature (1982). He died in Guadalajara, Jalisco at the age of 93.

Publications