Mario Vargas Llosa (Perú 1936)

Mario Vargas Llosa is considered one of Latin America's greatest contemporary writers. Author of articles, essays and plays as well as novels, his work encompasses various narrative forms, from political novels to comic novels to mythico-political narration. His works have been translated into over 20 languages. "Writing a novel" -he says- "is a ceremony similar to a striptease. Just as the girl in the spotlight casts off her clothes and reveals her secrets one by one, the novelist bares his own intimate being through his novels." Mario Vargas Llosa was born in Arequipa, Perú, on March 28, 1936.

He attended the University of San Marcos in Lima and the University of Madrid, where he obtained the doctorate in 1959. Writer, journalist, critic and teacher, he has taught at the Queen Mary College and Kings College of the University of London, Washington State University, Pullman, the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, and Columbia University in New York. He was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C. He has been the recipient of many literary prizes among which are the Barral Prix Biblioteca Breve (1962), the Premio de la Crítica Española (1963 and 1966), the Premio Nacional de la Novela (1967), the Premio del Instituto Italo Latinoamericano (Italy, 1982), the Ritz Paris Hemingway Award (1985), and the Premio Internacional de Literatura Rómulo Gallegos.

In 1996 he was one of the founding members of the Fundación Hispano Cubana, an organisation which aims to maintain, reinforce and develop the links which have existed for over 500 years between the Cuban and Spanish people.d journalist".

Biography:"The Time of the Hero", "Conversation in The Cathedral ", "The Green House ", "The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto", "The Cubs and other sto