René Vázquez Díaz

René Vázquez Díaz is a Cuban-Swedish writer[1] and translator,[2] winner of the Radio France Internationale's Juan Rulfo Award 2007[3] for his novel Welcome to Miami Doctor Leal[4](Latin American Literary Review Press, Pittsburgh 2009). One of his most notable novels is The Island of Cundeamor. His latest published book is the autobiographical novel Ciudades junto al mar (Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2011).

René Vázquez Díaz, photo by Merja Diaz, 2011.

Vázquez Díaz has been a member of the Board of the Swedish Writers’ Union (2005-2012) and he is a member of the PEN Club. He has worked for the Group of Classics of the Swedish Arts Council, and he writes for Le Monde Diplomatique and other papers. As a member of the Board of the Swedish Writers’ Union, he was involved in the organisation of WALTIC (Writers’ and Literary Translators’ International Congress), which took place in Stockholm in 2008 with the participation of 500 writers, translators and academics from all over the world.

Vázquez Díaz holds a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree from the prestigious Escuela Vocacional de Vento in Havana. He left Cuba in 1972 and studied shipbuilding at the University of Gdansk, Poland. He defected to Sweden in December 1974, and he lived in the USA (Miami and Los Angeles) 1975-76. Vázquez Díaz resides in Sweden since 1976 and he is a Swedish citizen since 1979.

Vázquez Díaz founded the International Poetry Days in Malmö together with the Swedish poet Lasse Söderberg. He was a member of the Festival’s board since its inauguration in 1986 until 1992.

In 1994 René Vázquez Díaz organized, in coordination with the Olof Palme International Center, the so-called Encuentro de Estocolmo, the first National Reconciliation Reunion of Cuban writers living in Cuba and in exile.

Vázquez Díaz worked in the Olof Palme International Center 1994-1999. As a result of his work, the Center published the following books: Bipolaridad de la Cultura Cubana (1994), Health & Nutrition in Cuba: Effects of the US Embargo (1999) and Textos para cerrar un siglo (1999), published by the Olof Palme International Center.

Vázquez Díaz writes in Spanish and in Swedish and he has translated several Swedish books into Spanish. His own work has been translated into Swedish, French, Italian, English and Finnish.

He has lectured at the universities of Uppsala, Lund, Sundsvall, Stockholm, Sevilla, Málaga, Havana, Mexico (UNAM), Ghent, Antwerpen, etc.

Professor Martin Fanzbach, from the University of Bremen, Germany, has called Vazquez Díaz “the lone wolf of Cuban literature”.