1996

Augusto Monterroso

Honduras, 1921-2003

Biography

Originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where he was born in 1921, he later became a naturalized Guatemalan citizen. Self-taught at heart, he did not even finish primary school. At fifteen he had to work in a butcher shop in a market in Guatemala, where his boss gave him books by authors such as Shakespeare and Victor Hugo, which set him on the passionate path of literature. In 1944 he went into exile in Mexico for the first time, an experience he had to repeat in 1954 after the U.S. intervention to overthrow the government of Jacobo Arbenz. He obtained, among others, the Saker-ti National Short Story Prize, Guatemala, 1952; the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, Mexico, 1975; and the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature 2000.

For any questions about the terms of this call, please contact

Dulce María Zúñiga, at the email dulce.zuniga@fil.com.mx