Mexican Author Carlos Fuentes Dies At 83
Carlos Fuentes, one of the Spanish-speaking world's best-known and most prolific contemporary writers, died yesterday in Mexico City after suffering an internal hemorrhage in his home. During his fifty-three-year literary career, Fuentes wrote more than twenty novels and dozens of short stories, plays, and essays that have been translated into two dozen languages. He will be missed by many not only as an author but also as an outspoken social critic, political activist, scholar, and pivotal figure in modern Latin American literature.
He is best known for The Old Gringo, a novel about the disappearance of American writer Ambrose Bierce during the Mexican Revolution. It was the first Mexican book to become a best-seller in the U.S. and the source for the 1989 film of the same name starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda.
Fuentes will be honored today at a ceremony at the Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, where his casket will be on display. His forthcoming novel Vlad will be published July 1. Listen to Fuentes discuss writing, literature, and life in this great clip...
News by Kimberly Turner
Kimberly Turner is an internet entrepreneur, DJ, editor, beekeeper, linguist, traveler, and writer. This either makes her exceptionally well-rounded or slightly crazy; it’s hard to say which. She spent a decade as a journalist and magazine editor in Australia and the U.S. and is now working (very, very slowly) on her first novel. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, two cats, ten fish, and roughly 60,000 bees.
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Inspirational stuff Kimberly, thanks!
I liked his comment about our tendency to turn magic into mere routine. Ahh, to reverse that flow.
Thanks, Jeff. That quote struck me too.