Diego Valverde Villena facts for kids
Diego Valverde Villena is a talented writer born on April 6, 1967. He is known as a poet and an essayist, which means he writes both poems and short non-fiction articles. He is also a polyglot, someone who knows and uses many different languages. Diego Valverde Villena has triple citizenship, meaning he is a citizen of three countries: Peru, Spain, and Bolivia. He was born in Peru, and his parents were from Spain and Bolivia.
About Diego Valverde Villena
Early Life and Education
Diego Valverde Villena was born in Lima, Peru, on April 6, 1967. When he was four years old, in 1971, his family moved from Peru to Spain. Like many other writers, he went to a Jesuit school called San Jose in Valladolid, Spain.
He studied at the University of Valladolid from 1985 to 1991. There, he earned three degrees in Spanish, English, and German literature. He also took classes in different languages and literatures at other universities. These included the University of Salamanca (for Scandinavian languages), the University of Edinburgh (for Modernism), University College Dublin (for Irish literature), and the University of Wroclaw (for Polish language). Later, he studied for his doctorate in Medieval English Literature at several famous universities, including the University of Oxford and the Complutense University of Madrid. He earned a master's degree in English Literature from the Complutense University of Madrid.
Teaching and Travels
Valverde Villena has worked as a teacher at several universities. He taught at the Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz, Bolivia. There, he taught about different types of Poetry, including Medieval and Baroque poetry, from 1996 to 1998 and again after 2010.
From 2002 to 2004, he worked for the Spanish government in the Secretary of State for Culture. Today, he lives in Bolivia but often travels to Spain.
A Translator of Many Works
Diego Valverde Villena is also a skilled translator. He has translated many literary works into Spanish from other languages. Some of the famous authors he has translated include Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, and Rudyard Kipling, known for The Jungle Book. He has also translated works by poets like John Donne, Emily Dickinson, and Paul Celan.
Writing Style
Mixing Life and Culture
Diego Valverde Villena's poetry is known for being very rich in allusions. This means his poems often refer to other works of literature, history, or culture. According to poet Julio Martínez Mesanza, his poems are a "perfect mixture of life and culture." He uses these cultural references to show his deepest feelings, much like the "conceit" used by the Metaphysical poets of the past. Martínez Mesanza believes that John Donne and Ausias March are big influences on Valverde Villena's writing.
"Flash Poems"
Some critics call Valverde Villena's short poems "flash poems" or "spark poems." This is because they pack many ideas into just a few lines. The poet Ahmed Higazi once said about them, "it's like having a big lion in a little cage." This means a lot of power and meaning are contained in a small space.
Valverde Villena's poetry includes references not only to different literary traditions and languages but also to history, anthropology (the study of human societies), religion, music, and even cinema.
Published Works
Poetry Collections
- El difícil ejercicio del olvido, La Paz, Bolivia, 1997.
- Chicago, West Barry, 628, Sueltos de la Selva Profunda, Logroño, 2000.
- No olvides mi rostro, Huerga y Fierro, Madrid, 2001.
- Infierno del enamorado, Valladolid, 2002.
- El espejo que lleva mi nombre escrito, Cairo, 2006.
- Shir Hashirim, Ediciones del Caracol Descalzo, Madrid, 2006.
- Iconos, a three-part poem released with music by Juan Manuel Ruiz, 2008.
- Un segundo de vacilación, La Paz, Bolivia, 2011.
- Panteras, Madrid, 2015.
Anthologies (Collections of Works by Different Authors)
- 33 de Radio 3, Calamar/RNE 3, Madrid, 2004.
- Antología de poesía española y egipcia contemporánea, Instituto Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos, Madrid, 2005.
- Diez poetas, diez músicos, Calambur, Madrid, 2008.
Essays (Non-Fiction Articles)
- Para Catalina Micaela: Álvaro Mutis, más allá del tiempo, UMSA, La Paz, Bolivia, 1997.
- Varado entre murallas y gaviotas. Seis entradas en la bitácora del Maqroll el Gaviero, Gente Común, La Paz, Bolivia, 2011.
- Dominios inventados, Plural, La Paz, Bolivia, 2013.
- "Poesía boliviana reciente" in La Jornada Semanal, Mexico, June 27, 1999.
- "El espejo de la calle Gaona: los pasadizos entre ficción y realidad en Jorge Luis Borges", Clarín, 30, Nov.-Dec. 2000.
- "Don Álvaro ante el rey, tantos años después", Clarín, 32, March–April 2001.
- "Mujeres de mirada fija y lento paso: el eterno femenino en la poesía de Álvaro Mutis", Excelsior, Mexico, June 7, 2002.
- "Hechos de armas bajo la bandera de Álvaro Mutis", Letras Libres, 10, July 2002.
- "Spain: Agape and conviviality at the table", in Culinary Cultures of Europe, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, 2005.
- "Al amparo de Isis (un viaje a Egipto)", in Clarín, 63, May–June 2006.
- "Cuando Stonewall Jackson conoció al General Lee: una semblanza de José María Álvarez", introduction to Los prodigios de la cera, by José María Álvarez, Caracas, 2008.
- "Los caminos de T. S. Eliot", in Renacimiento, Seville, 2008.
Prose Translations
- Nuestro visitante de medianoche y otras historias, by Arthur Conan Doyle, Valdemar, Madrid, 2001.
- La vida imperial de Rudyard Kipling (The Long Recessional), by David Gilmour, Seix Barral, Barcelona, 2003.
- En interés de la Hermandad (In the Interests of the Brethren), by Rudyard Kipling, in Conde de Aranda, 3, 2007.
Edited Collections
- Alvaro Mutis, La voz de Alvaro Mutis, edited by Diego Valverde Villena, Poesía en la Residencia, Residencia de Estudiantes, Madrid, 2001.
- Luis Alberto de Cuenca, De amor y de amargura, edited, selected and with a preface by Diego Valverde Villena, Renacimiento, Seville, 2005.
- Gaviero. Ensayos sobre Álvaro Mutis, edited, selected and with a preface by Diego Valverde Villena, Verbum, Madrid, 2014.
See also
In Spanish: Diego Valverde Villena para niños
