Alejandra Costamagna

Alejandra Costamagna
May 2014
Born Alejandra Costamagna Crivelli
(1970-03-23) 23 March 1970
Santiago, Chile
Alma mater Diego Portales University
Occupation Writer, journalist
Awards

Alejandra Costamagna Crivelli (born 23 March 1970) is a Chilean writer and journalist.

Biography

Born to Argentine parents who arrived in Chile in 1967 after fleeing the dictatorship of Juan Carlos Onganía, Alejandra Costamagna recalls that her first approach to writing was through journal entries that she began to make irregularly from age 10, in a notebook with blue Chinese silk covers.[1]

It was in adolescence that she began to take writing more seriously, after entering the Francisco Miranda school when she moved to La Reina. There, Professor Guillermo Gómez "recommended to her to read Neruda, Mistral, Shakespeare, Chekhov, and Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, a book which still marks her writing today." In addition, an interview was arranged and she went to the house of her neighbor Nicanor Parra, with whom she spoke about poetry and insomnia, which both shared.[1]

At the end of high school, Costamagna studied journalism at Diego Portales University and attended the workshops of Guillermo Blanco, Pía Barros, Carlos Cerda, and Antonio Skármeta. She later earned a master's degree in literature.[1]

In 2010, in a self-interview for Paula magazine, she asked "Are you one who would legalize marijuana?", with the answer, "And the morning after pill and gay marriage and abortion and also euthanasia."[2]

Costamagna maintained in 2011 that she likes silence ("I like this silence half contaminated by the noise of cars, from the city that gets into the distance. It's like being alone, but accompanied. And if I need to talk, I have Pascual."), that she does not want to have children ("The idea of the family composed of mother, father, children, nannies and pets seems to me to be super-enclosed, poor and conservative. Aside from my personal choice not to be a mother, I think having children is super nice."), that she was not worried about having a massive success ("I like that my life is still normal, that writing and publishing is my happiness. I do not want my work to become a race for success, to have to respond to an editorial expectation. I do not see myself like this."), and lamented stereotypes about women ("That women are crying the most and writing with more sentimentality is a stereotype that is very bad for gender equality. And that happens with questions of the duty of women to marry, to have children and to form a happy family.").[1]

She was the editor of the Culture and Entertainment section of the newspaper La Nación and created the youth supplement La X.[3] She worked for the Rock & Pop Channel, on the programs Gente de mente and Parque Forestal sin número, which she hosted.[4][5] Costamagna has taught literary workshops,[6] has been a theater commentator for national newspapers and magazines, and has worked as a columnist and chronicler for various magazines.[7]

Writing career

Costamagna at FILSA 2015

Costamagna published her first novel, En voz baja, in 1996, and followed it two years later with Ciudadano en retiro. Both works received very positive reviews from writer Roberto Bolaño:

There is a generation of (Chilean) women writers who promise to devour everything. At the head, clearly, two stand out. These are Lina Meruane and Alejandra Costamagna, followed by Nona Fernández and by five or six young women armed with all the implements of good literature.

— Roberto Bolaño, February 1999[8]

In 2000 her first book of short stories appeared, Malas noches. Although she has continued to write novels, Costamagna has specially developed the relato, so much so that she even reconverted her first novel into one, "Había una vez un pájaro", which appeared in a 2013 book of the same title, accompanied by two other texts. In El Mercurio, Rodrigo Pinto compared this "calling to purify and clean her texts" with that of José Santos González Vera, who used to republish his works with the warning "corrected and diminished edition", but stressed that in Costamagna it acquired a different and even more radical expression.[9]

She has written for magazines such as Gatopardo, the Chilean edition of Rolling Stone, and El Malpensante. Her work has been translated into several languages (Italian, French, Danish, Korean) and has been honored with several awards, including the Altazor (2006) and the Anna Seghers-Preis (2008) for the best Latin American author of the year.[7]

Works

Books

  • En voz baja, novel, LOM Ediciones, 1996
  • Ciudadano en retiro, novel, Planeta, 1998
  • Malas noches, short stories, Planeta, 2000. Divided into three sections, containing 15 stories plus an explanatory note about the gestation of the texts:
    • "Veintiséis dientes": "Boca abierta", "Micro", "Buenaventura", "Sin voz", and "Veintiséis dientes"
    • "Noticias de Japón": "Grasa en la estación", "Violeta azulado", "Donde se congelaba la primavera", "Parcialmente nublado", "Noticias de Japón", and "Grito de Leningrado"
    • "En el parque": "Sólo un poco, en la mejilla", "Ellos", "Espejo", and "En el parque"
  • Cansado ya del sol, novel, Planeta, 2002
  • Últimos fuegos, short stories, Ediciones B. 2005. Containing 16 texts:
    • "Santa Fe", "Coronas vigilantes", "La invención del silencio", "Cuadrar las cosas", "Violeta azulado", "Bombero en las colinas", "El tono de un noble", "Domingos felices", "La epidemia de Traiguén", "La faena", "Noticias de Japón", "Champaña", "El olor de los claveles", "Chufa", "Cigarrillos, el diario, el pan", and "El último incendio"
  • Dile que no estoy, novel, Planeta, 2007
  • Naturalezas muertas, long story (as defined by the author);[10] Cuneta, 2010
  • Animales domésticos, short stories, Mondadori, 2011. Containing 11 stories:
    • "Yo, Claudio", "Imposible salir de la Tierra", "A las cuatro, a las cinco, a las seis", "Daisy está contigo", "Hambre", "Patanjali", "Hombrecitos", "Pelos", "La epidemia de Traiguén", "El único orden posible, and "Nadie nunca se acostumbra"
  • Cruce de peatones, chronicles, interviews, and profiles, selection by Julieta Marchant; Ediciones UDP, 2012
  • Había una vez un pájaro, three short stories, Cuneta, 2013. Contains "Nadie nunca se acostumbra", the micro-tale "Agujas de reloj", the titular story, and a final explanatory note by the author, entitled "En voz baja"
  • Imposible salir de la Tierra, ten short stories that date back to the years 2005–2015; six published in books and magazines, four unpublished.[11][12] Almadía (Mexico)/Estruendomudo CL, 2016

Short stories published in collections

  • "Dedos para el piano", in Música ligera (Grijalbo, 1994)
  • "Micro", in Salidas de madre (Planeta, 1996)
  • "En el parque", in Voces de eros (Mondadori, 1997)
  • "Espejo", in Relatos y resacas (Planeta, 1997)
  • "Grito de Leningrado", in Cuentos extraviados (Alfaguara, 1997)
  • "Los extranjeros", in Líneas aéreas (Lengua de Trapo, 1999)
  • "Cucharitas", in Alucinaciones (Editorial Puerto de Escape, 2007)
  • "Violeta azulado", in Maldito Amor (Alfaguara, 2008)

Awards and distinctions

  • 1994 Fondart Scholarship for writing her first novel
  • 1996 Gabriela Mistral Literary Games Award for En voz baja
  • Honorable mention for the 1997 Santiago Municipal Prize with En voz baja
  • Finalist for the 2001 Altazor Award with Malas noches
  • Finalist for the 2002 Planeta Argentina Award with Cansado ya del sol
  • Finalist for the 2003 Altazor Award with Cansado ya del sol
  • 2003 International Writing Program Scholarship from the University of Iowa
  • 2006 Altazor Award for Últimos fuegos
  • 2007 Art Critics' Circle Award for Dile que no estoy
  • Finalist for the 2008 Altazor Award with Dile que no estoy
  • 2008 Anna Seghers-Preis (German literary award)
  • 2009 Best Literary Works Award in the Unpublished Work category from the National Book and Reading Council for Animales domésticos
  • Finalist for the 2012 Altazor Award with Animales domésticos

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Salinas T., Juan Luis (14 June 2011). "'No quiero que mi trabajo sea una carrera por el éxito'" ['I do not want my job to be a race for success']. Ya (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  2. ↑ Costamagna, Alejandra (19 November 2010). "Autoentrevista" [Self-interview]. Paula (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  3. ↑ "Alejandra Costamagna" (in Spanish). ARTV. 17 October 2017.
  4. ↑ Cuentos chilenos contemporáneos 2000 [Contemporary Chilean Short Stories 2000] (in Spanish). LOM Ediciones. 2001. p. 46. ISBN 9789562823784. Retrieved 17 October 2017 – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ García-Corales, Guillermo (2007). El debate cultural y la literatura chilena actual: un diálogo con cinco generaciones de escritores [The Cultural Debate and the Current Chilean Literature: A Dialogue With Five Generations of Writers] (in Spanish). Edwin Mellen Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780773454316.
  6. ↑ "Noticias" [News] (in Spanish). University of Chile School of Journalism. 8 August 2000. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  7. 1 2 "Alejandra Costamagna" (in Spanish). Altazor Award. Archived from the original on 19 May 2014. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  8. ↑ Bolaño, Roberto (February 1999). "Fragmentos de regreso a un país natal" [Fragments of Return To a Native Country]. Paula (in Spanish). No. 192. pp. 98–101.
  9. ↑ Pinto, Rodrigo (26 October 2013). "Había una vez un pájaro" [Once Upon a Time There Was a Bird]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  10. ↑ Zúñiga, Diego (17 October 2010). "Alejandra Costamagna vuelve a Retiro" [Alejandra Costamagna Returns To Retirement]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  11. ↑ Guerrero, Pedro Pablo (5 October 2016). "Alejandra Costamagna y el vértigo de lo cotidiano" [Alejandra Costamagna and the Vertigo of Everyday Life]. El Mercurio (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 October 2017 – via Economía y Negocios Online.
  12. ↑ Casasus, Mario (23 November 2016). "Alejandra Costamagna: 'Imposible salir de la tierra está en la misma atmósfera y densidad dramática'" [Alejandra Costamagna: 'It is impossible to leave the earth in the same atmosphere and dramatic density']. Clarín (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 October 2017.
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