José Emilio Pacheco Explained

José Emilio Pacheco
Birth Name:	José Emilio Pacheco Berny
Birth Date:	30 June 1939
Birth Place:	Mexico City, Mexico
Death Place:	Mexico City, Mexico
Alma Mater:	National Autonomous University of Mexico
Occupation:	Writer
Children:	2

José Emilio Pacheco Berny (30 June 1939 – 26 January 2014)^[1] was a Mexican poet, essayist, novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the major Mexican poets of the second half of the 20th century. The Berlin International Literature Festival has praised him as "one of the most significant contemporary Latin American poets".^[2] In 2009 he was awarded the Cervantes Prize for his literary oeuvre.^[3]

He taught at UNAM, as well as the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Essex, and many others in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

He died aged 74 in 2014 after suffering a cardiac arrest.^[4]

Awards

He was awarded the following prizes: Premio Cervantes 2009, Reina Sofía Award (2009), Federico García Lorca Award (2005), Octavio Paz Award (2003), Pablo Neruda Award (2004), Ramón López Velarde Award (2003), Alfonso Reyes International Prize (2004), José Fuentes Mares National Prize for Literature (2000), National José Asunción Silva Poetry Award (1996), and Xavier Villaurrutia Prize. In 2013 he was awarded the Golden Wreath of the Struga Poetry Evenings festival in Struga, Macedonia.^[5] He was elected by unanimous acclaim to the Mexican Academy (Academia Mexicana de la Lengua) on 28 March 2006. He was a member of The National College (El Colegio Nacional) since 1986.

Works

Poetry

• Los elementos de la noche (1963)
• El reposo del fuego (1966)
• No me preguntes cómo pasa el tiempo (1970)
• Irás y no volverás (1973)
• Islas a la deriva (1976)
• Desde entonces (1979)
• Los trabajos del mar (1983)
• Miro la tierra (1987)
• Selected Poems, ed. George McWhirter (1987, in English)
• Ciudad de la memoria (1990)
• El silencio de la luna (1996)
• City of Memory and Other Poems, trans. David Lauer, Cynthia Steele (1997, in English)
• La arena errante (1999)
• Siglo pasado (2000)
• Tarde o temprano: Poemas 1958-2009 (2009, Complete Poetry)
• Como la lluvia (2009)
• La edad de las tinieblas (2009)
• El espejo de los ecos (2012)

Novel and short stories

• El viento distante y otros relatos (1963)
• Morirás lejos (1967)
• El principio del placer (1972)
• La sangre de Medusa (1977)
• Las batallas en el desierto (1981)
• Battles in the Desert & Other Stories, trans. Katherine Silver (1987, in English)

Further reading

English:

• Modern Spanish American poets. Second series / María Antonia Salgado, 2004
• José Emilio Pacheco and the poets of the shadows / Ronald J Friis, 2001
• Out of the volcano: portraits of contemporary Mexican artists / Margaret Sayers Peden, 1991
• Tradition and renewal: essays on twentieth-century Latin American literature and culture / Merlin H Forster, 1975
• The turning tides: the poetry of José Emilio Pacheco / Mary Kathryn Docter, 1991
• Jose Emilio Pacheco: Selected Poems / Ed. George McWhirter, New Directions,1987
• Time in the poetry of José Emilio Pacheco: images, themes, poetics / Judith Roman Topletz, 1983

Spanish:

• José Emilio Pacheco : perspectivas críticas / Hugo J Verani, 2006
• Ensoñación cósmica : poética de El reposo de fuego de José Emilio Pacheco / Betina Bahía Diwan, 2004
• Dilemas de la poesía de fin de siglo : José Emilio Pacheco y Jaime Saenz / Elizabeth Pérez, 2001
• José Emilio Pacheco : poeta y cuentista posmoderno / José de Jesús Ramos, 1992
• El papel del lector en la novela mexicana contemporánea: José Emilio Pacheco/ Magda Graniela-Rodríguez, 1991
• José Emilio Pacheco : poética y poesía del prosaísmo / Daniel Torres, 1990
• La hoguera y el viento : José Emilio Pacheco ante la crítica / Hugo J Verani, 1987
• José Emilio Pacheco / Luis Antonio de Villena, 1986
• Ficción e historia : la narrativa de José Emilio Pacheco / Yvette Jiménez de Báez, 1979

External links

• • José Emilio Pacheco (at El Colegio Nacional)
• Essay on Pacheco from The Quarterly Conversation
• Essay on Pacheco's Batallas en el desierto
• José Emilio Pacheco recorded at the Library of Congress for the Hispanic Division’s audio literary archive on Jan. 16, 1976

Notes and References

1. Web site: Jose Emilio Pacheco dies at 74; one of Mexico's foremost writers . Los Angeles Times . 27 January 2014.
2. Web site: José Emilio Pacheco - Biography. International Literature Festival Berlin. 2 June 2012. 3 February 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140203085145/http://www.literaturfestival.com/participants/authors/2001/jose-emilio-pacheco. dead.
3. News: Woolls. Daniel. Cervantes Literary Award Goes To Mexican Pacheco. 2 June 2012. The Huffington Post. 30 November 2009.
4. Web site: jose-emilio-pacheco-muere.
5. Web site: José Emilio Pacheco. Struga Poetry Evenings. 11 December 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20140529082928/http://www.strugapoetryevenings.com/poets/jose-emilio-pacheco/?lang=en. 29 May 2014.