Darío Jaramillo Agudelo

Darío Jaramillo Agudelo was born in Santa Rosa de Osos in the province of Antioquia in northwest Colombia in 1947. He studied Law and Economics at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. Dario Jaramillo Agudelo published his first book of poetry ‘Historias’ in 1974. Four years later his second book of verse ‘Tratado de retórica’ received the Premio Nacional de Poesía. His debut novel, 1983’s ‘La muerte de Alec’ – followed by several novels, including ‘Cartas cruzadas’ and most recently ‘La voz interior’ (2006) – proved him also to be a remarkable prose writer. In spite of this, as a writer, Darío Jaramillo Agudelo did not want to have to depend on royalties, scholarships and prize money, which is why, since 1985, he has earned his living as a cultural representative for the National Bank of Columbia. In 1995 Jaramillo Agudelo was made a corresponding member of the Colombian Academy of Languages. He lives in Bogotá. Darío Jaramillo Agudelo’s writing overcomes the gap which today separates poetry and prose; he lets the poetic stimulate his literature. In an interview with the Mexican newspaper ‘La Jornada’ he admitted, “I’m convinced that the only literary genre is that of poetry. A novel, an essay, a reportage is only valuable if it conveys poetic emotion”. However, his novels are not sentimental. They are dominated by topics having to do with the violent nature of everyday Columbian life, a subject that is also pursued by Columbia’s own literary movement, the ‘literatura de la violencia’. Dario Jaramillo Agudelo became popular above all through his series ‘Poemas de amor’. Together with Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda, Juan Manuel Roca, Giovanni Quessep, Henry Luque Muñoz, Raúl Henao, María Mercedes Carranza and Elkin Restrepo, Darío Jaramillo Agudelo belongs to the so-called ‘Generación sin Nombre’ (‘Generation without a Name’). He nonetheless does not see Latin and South American literature as experiencing a creative crisis. Instead, in Colombia’s very dynamic literature scene and publishing landscape a “wide array of possibilities” (Patricia Salazar) are unfolding.

© international literaturefestival berlin

Historias
La Soga al cuello
Bogotá, 1974

Tratado de Retórica
Centro Editorial Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Bogotá, 1987

Guja para viajeros
Planeta
Bogotá, 1991

Cartas cruzadas
Alfaguara
Santafé de Bogotá, 1995

La muerte de Alec
Alfaguara
Bogotá, 1999

Memorias de un hombre feliz
Alfaguara
Bogotá, 2000

Aunque es de noche
Pre-Textos
Madrid, 2000

Cantar por cantar
Pre-Textos
Madrid, 2001

El juego del alfiler
Pre-Textos
Madrid, 2001

Poemas de amor
El Áncora
Bogotá, 1989
Ill: Antonio Roda

Libros de poemas
Fondo de Cultura Económica
Colombia, 2003

Novela con fantasma
Pre-Textos
Valencia, 2004

Gatos
Pre-Textos
Madrid, 2005

Historia de una pasion
Pre-Textos
Madrid, 2006

La voz interior
Pre-Textos
Madrid, 2006

Übersetzer: Tobias Burghardt