Alicia Yánez Cossío

Alicia Yáñez Cossío
Born December 10, 1928 (1928-12-10) (age 88)
Quito, Ecuador
Occupation Writer, Poet, Journalist
Language Spanish
Nationality Ecuadorian
Notable awards Premio Eugenio Espejo (2008), Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize (1996)

Alicia Yáñez Cossío (Quito, September 10, 1928[1] ) is a prominent Ecuadorian poet, novelist and journalist.

Yáñez Cossio is one of the leading figures in Ecuadorian literature and in Latin America, and she is the first Ecuadorian to win the Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, which she received in 1996.

In 2008 she received Ecuador's highest literary prize, the "Premio Eugenio Espejo" for her lifetime of work.

Biography

Daughter of Ing.el Alfonso Yánez Proaño and Clemencia Cossío Larrea. When she was six years old she entered the Sagrados Corazones School of Quito, where she stayed for a while due to academic failings stemming from a dislike of arithmetic. However, since she was young, Cossío she always desired to be a writer because of her great talent with words.3

Yáñez Cossío would later say: “I had an extremely happy childhood, maybe a bit boyish, influenced by the first books I read: the works of Julio Verne and Tarzan’s feats. I never liked dolls.”.4

Her characters frequently represent the community that fights to rescue woman’s elementary rights. Male chauvinism is a recurring theme in her writing. Irony, sarcasm and hyperbole make evident twisted masculine superiority, where she critiques social concepts, such as virginity, homosexuality, etc.

She has other unprecedented novels with similar characteristics. One of them is “El Cristo Feo” (“The Ugly Christ”).

In 1993 she became a widow. She is a woman whose fame has expanded beyond the borders of her homeland.

In 1996 she received the Premio Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz for the best Latin American novel written by a woman.5

In 1998 she edited “Retratos cubanos” (“Cuban Portraits”) with 18 stories written between 1957 and 1961 from Cuba. They mainly discussed man’s battle to attain freedom. When the original authors left the island, the stories were confiscated, later to be re-written in 1996, mixing history with crude realism.

Today she enjoys being with her grandchildren, as she adores them. She is the mother of the writer Luis Miguel Campos Yáñez, who is pleased to see her son's use of his gifts.

Works

Awards

The Alicia Yáñez Cossío Children's Literature Competition

In 2002 she was honored by the Government of the Province of Pichincha and its Provincial Patronage by the institution of a children’s literature contest that bears her name. This contest aims to stimulate all the districts of Pichincha’s provinces to contribute to the creation of spaces for expression, research and strengthening of cultural identity.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Yánez Cossío, Alicia. Bruna, soroche y los tíos. ISBN 9789978801215.
  2. ↑ "La Hora". Concurso de literatura infantil. June 17, 2002.
  1. Cossío, Alicia Yánez; C, Sara Beatriz Vanégas Cobeña Vanégas (1 de enero de 1991). Bruna, soroche y los tíos. Libresa. ISBN 9789978801215. Consultado el 12 de octubre de 2016.
  2. Cossío, Alicia Yánez (1 de enero de 1996). El viaje de la abuela. Libresa. ISBN 9789978803752. Consultado el 12 de octubre de 2016.
  3. Volver arriba↑ Rodolfo Pérez Pimentel. «Alicia Yánez Cossío (sic): "Alicia Yánez Cossío"». Consultado el 2010.
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