Lina Meruane

Lina Meruane Boza (born 1970) is a Chilean writer and professor.[1] Her work, written in Spanish, has been translated into English, Italian, Portuguese, German, and French. In 2011 she won the Anna Seghers-Preis for the quality of her work, and in 2012 the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize for her novel Sangre en el ojo.[2]

Lina Meruane
2016
Born
Lina Meruane Boza

1970 (age 52–53)
Santiago, Chile
Alma materNew York University
Occupation(s)Writer, professor
Notable work
  • Fruta podrida (2007)
  • Sangre en el ojo (2012)
Awards

Biography

Born in Santiago, Chile, Lina Meruane is of Palestinian and Italian descent. She is the niece of actress Nelly Meruane and comedian Ricardo Meruane. She started writing as a storyteller and cultural journalist. In 1997 she received a writing grant from the National Fund for Cultural Development and the Arts (FONDART) to finish her first book of stories.[1] The following year she published Las infantas, a book that received a very positive critique from Chilean reviewers, as well as writer Roberto Bolaño:

There is a generation of (Chilean) writers who promise to devour it all. At the head, clearly, two stand out. These are Lina Meruane and Alejandra Costamagna, followed by Nona Fernández and five or six other young women armed with all the implements of good literature.

— Roberto Bolaño, February 1999[3]

Meruane published two novels before leaving for New York to do her doctorate studies in Spanish-American literature at New York University.[1] In the United States she received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in 2004 (for the novel Fruta Podrida),[4] and another in 2010 from the National Endowment for the Arts (for Sangre en el ojo). In 2011 she received the Anna Seghers-Preis, and the following year she won the 20th Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Award for Sangre en el ojo, during the Guadalajara International Book Fair, with a jury made up of the writers Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Antonio Ortuño, and Cristina Rivera Garza.[2]

She currently teaches Latin American literature and cultures at New York University.[2] She was the founder and director of the independent label Brutas Editoras, which published books from Santiago and Manhattan.[1]

Works

Short stories
  • Las infantas, Planeta, Santiago, Chile, 1998 (Eterna Cadencia, Argentina, 2010), ISBN 9789871673070

Novels translated into English
  • Seeing Red translated by Megan McDowell, Deep Vellum, USA (Atlantic Books, UK, 2016), ISBN 9781941920251; original edition Sangre en el ojo
  • Nervous System translated by Megan McDowell, forthcoming, Graywolf, USA, 2021 (Atlantic Books, UK, 2021); original edition Sistema Nervioso

Novels in original Spanish
  • Póstuma, Planeta, Santiago, 2000 (Oficina Do Livro, Portugal, 2001)
  • Cercada, Cuarto Propio, Santiago, 2000 (Cuneta Editores, Santiago, 2014 with prologue by Lorena Amaro)
  • Fruta podrida, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Santiago, 2007 (Eterna Cadencia, 2015), ISBN 9789562890601
  • Sangre en el ojo, Caballo de Troya, Spain, 2012 (Penguin Random House, 2015)
  • Sistema Nervioso, Penguin Random House, Chile & Spain, 2019

Drama
  • Un lugar donde caerse muerta / Not a leg to stand on, dramatic adaptation of the novel Fruta podrida by the author and the Chilean theater director Martín Balmaceda; bilingual edition with prologue by Guillermo Calderón and English translation by Sarah Thomas, Diaz Grey Editores, 2012 (Trópico Sur, Uruguay, 2013)
Meruane signing her books at the 2016 Puerto de Ideas cultural festival

Nonfiction
  • Viral Voyages. Tracing AIDS in Latin America, translated by Andrea Rosenberg, Palgrave MacMillan, 2014, ISBN 9781137394996; original edition Viajes virales: la crisis del contagio global en la escritura del sida, essay, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Santiago 2012, ISBN 9789562891042
  • Volverse palestina, chronicle, Literal Publishing, USA / Conaculta, Mexico, 2013, ISBN 9789568228866
  • Volverse palestina/Volvernos otros, chronicle/personal essay; Literatura Random House, Santiago, 2014
  • Contra los hijos, essay-diatribe, Tumbona, Mexico, 2014, ISBN 9789569766626 and Penguin Random House, 2018 ISBN 9788439734062

Visual essays
  • Cinco personas en busca de su personaje, ongoing project, first part directed by Luciano Piazza

In English language journals

Two Lines (California), Bomb (New York), The Literary Review (New York), Brick (Canada), N+1 (New York), Words without Borders (New York), Drunken Boat (US), The White Review (UK), Litro Magazine (UK), Brown Book (Arab Emirates), Asymptote (US), among others in several languages.

Grants and awards
  • 1997: Grant. National Council for the Arts, FONDART, Chile, for Las Infantas (National Council of Culture and the Arts)
  • 2004: Grant. John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Latin American and Caribbean Fellowship for Fruta podrida
  • 2006: Award. Best Unpublished Novel, for Fruta podrida (National Council of Culture and the Arts)[2]
  • 2010: Grant. National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, for Seeing Red.
  • 2011: Award. Anna Seghers-Preis, por her literary work [2]
  • 2012: Award. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, for Sangre en el ojo[2]
  • 2015: Award. Institute of Chilean-Arab Culture Award, for Volverse Palestina[5]
  • 2015: Award. Cálamo Another Look, for Fruta podrida (Zaragoza)[6]
  • 2017: Grant. Artists-in-Berlin Program, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service; for Sistema Nervioso.

References
  1. "Lina Meruane" (in Spanish). Agencia Literaria CBQ. Archived from the original on 23 April 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  2. "Chilena Lina Meruane gana XX premio de literatura Sor Juana Inés en México" [Chilean Lina Meruane Wins 20th Sor Juana Inés Literature Prize in Mexico] (in Spanish). Radio Bío-Bío. AFP. 30 October 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  3. Bolaño, Roberto (2004). "Fragmentos de regreso a un país natal" [Fragments of Return to a Native Country]. Entre paréntesis: ensayos, artículos y discursos (1998–2003) [In Parentheses: Essays, Articles, and Speeches (1998–2003)] (in Spanish). Editorial Anagrama. p. 67. ISBN 9788433962102. Retrieved 4 February 2018 – via Google Books.
  4. "Lina Meruane". Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  5. "Hoy: Instituto Chileno-Árabe de Cultura premiará a escritora Lina Meruane" [Today: Institute of Chilean-Arab Culture Will Award Writer Lina Meruane] (in Spanish). Federación Palestina. 6 August 2015. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  6. "El buen momento de la literatura chilena" [The Good Moment for Chilean Literature]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). 6 February 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
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