Fernando Ampuero

 

Fernando Ampuero

Peruvian writer and journalist

Fernando Pedro Ampuero del Bosque ( Lima , July 13, 1949) is a Peruvian journalist , writer , short story writer , poet , playwright and screenwriter , who has practiced the most diverse genres: short story , novel , theater , essay , chronicle , poetry .

 

Fernando Ampuero

 

Fernando Ampuero and The Imperfect Peruvian at the Bolaño Chair, 2011

Personal information

Birth

July 13, 1949

(73 years old) Peru , Lima

 

Nationality

Peruvian

Education

Education

College of the Immaculate Conception

Educated in

Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

Professional information

Occupation

Writer , journalist , poet and novelist View and edit data on Wikidata

Employer

Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

Biography

He studied in Lima , at the Colegio de la Inmaculada and at the Catholic University . He has been deputy director of the magazine Caretas , director of Jaque and Somos , general editor of Canal N and director of the television programs Documento and Uno más uno of ATV . Until the end of 2008, he was director of the investigative unit of the newspaper El Comercio and of its cultural supplement El Dominical and of ATV Noticias .

 

As an investigative journalist, "he has managed to put several of his compatriots in jail, in a crusade against corruption that he undertook from journalism. This earned him walking the streets with two bodyguards, one of whom received a bullet in the thigh as a warning sign." [ 1 ]

 

"Journalists have played the role of inspectors, or even investigators, sometimes replacing the police," he said, although he admits that it is a frustrating task: "For one person you manage to unmask and imprison, ten equally or worse corrupt people emerge." [ 1 ]

 

He began his literary career during a long backpacking trip, which took him to live for a time in the Galapagos Islands . [ 2 ] His first book was a collection of stories published in 1972 and titled Stop the World, I'm Getting Down Here , which has been followed by several volumes of short stories, Bad Manners (1994), Weird Bug (1996), Difficult Women, Blessed Men (2005), Lone Wolves and Other Stories" (2018), the compilations Ghosts of Chance (2010) and Stories (2013,2016,2017), and his volumes of selected stories Intimate and Wild (2017), While Dreams Burn (2019) and Essential Ampuero Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

 

His best-known novel is Caramelo verde (1992), which was the beginning of his Lima Quartet , which also includes Puta linda (2006), Loreto (2014) and Hasta que me orinen los perros (2008). The latter is based on one of his most celebrated stories: Taxi driver without Robert de Niro , which according to The Times Literary Supplement "is one of the most striking Latin American stories of the 20th century." On this circumstance, Ampuero explained in an interview:

 

"I am essentially a short story writer. My novels are actually long stories."

 

In 2011 he published El peruano imperfecto , a more personal work than his previous novels and in which the protagonist, Pedro José de Arancibia, is, like him, very tall (Ampuero is almost one meter ninety tall), he headed the investigative unit at El Comercio , whose bodyguard was shot in the thigh and who is descended like him from a Spanish conquistador and an Inca princess; he also backpacked around the world, lived in the Galapagos and Budapest , and writes stories. "This game of mirrors amuses him, because although there are some aspects that are faithfully taken from his personal history, there are others that are fictitious: 'What I did was exaggerate some episodes of my life and attenuate others that, if I didn't, would seem implausible'." [ 1 ]

 

 

Ampuero with visual artist Ricardo Wiesse ; FILSA 2018.

He published the book of chronicles and essays Tambores invisibles (both in 2014), and the following year his most lyrical and personal novel, Sucedió entre dos pétalos (It Happened Between Two Eyelids ). In 2017, the booklet Lobos solitarios ( Solitary Wolves) appeared , a narrative praised by critics and one of the books that appeared on the list of best-sellers at the 2017 Lima International Book Fair.

 

In 2018, the year in which he published The Witch of Lima , the first installment of his memoirs, Fernando Ampuero received the FIL LIMA Literature Prize.

 

Some of his works have been translated into other languages ​​( Caramel vert , Paris, Taxi driver sans Robert de Niro , Lyon) and he has also been anthologized (for example, The Picador Book of Latin American Stories, London; The Vintage Book of Latin American Stories , New York; Erzählungen aus Spanisch Amerika , München, Germany; or Beings: Contemporary Peruvian Short Stories , London, with his story «Malos modales»,) etc.

 

Works

 

Ampuero in 2018

Stop the world, I'm getting off here , short stories, Editorial Ari, 1972 (Estruendomudo, 2007)

Let's rave together , Kosmos, 1975 (Campodónico, 1994)

Miraflores Melody , novel, Serconsa Editores, 1979

Cat in the bag , chronicles and profiles, PEISA , 1987 and 1998; ( Punto de Lectura , 2009); (DEBOLSILLO, Penguin Random House, 2015); (TUSQUETS, Planeta, 2023).

Green Candy , crime novel, Campodónico, 1992 (first book of the Lima Street Trilogy ); Seix Barral , 2002; Alfaguara , 2006, 2012; Planeta , 2015.

Bad manners , short stories, Campodónico, 1994 (Booket Planeta, 2007)

The Weird Bug , short stories, Campodónico, 1996 (Planeta, 2009)

Voices of the Full Moon , a collection of poems, Campodónico, 1998 (Deluxe Edition, M.Zegarra Editora, 2002, illustrated by the artist José Tola)

Selected stories , Alfaguara, 1998

The Dwarf, History of an Enmity , fictionalized chronicle, Mosca Azul, 2001. PLibros, 2014.

 Memoirs, TusQuets , 2018.

House arrest , theatre, 2003

 

Ampuero, October 31, 2018

Thigh that I raise , poetry collection, Alta Niebla Editores, 2004

Difficult women, blessed men , short stories, Alfaguara, 2005

Pretty Whore , novel, Planeta AE&I, 2006 (second book of the Lima Street Trilogy ) / Salto de Página, 2006

Until the dogs pee on me , novel, Planeta AE&I, 2008 (third book of the Lima Street Trilogy ) / Salto de Página, 2008

Ghosts of chance , complete stories, Norma, 2010

40 poems , Alegoría Editores, 2010; with photographs by Sonia Cunliffe

Maida Sola and other stories , QG Editores, 2011

New Selected Stories , Albatros, 2011

The imperfect Peruvian , Alfaguara, novel, 2011, (DEBOLSILLO,Penguin Random House, 2015)

The games of love , Arsam, selection of stories, 2012

Lima Street Trilogy , Tajamar editores, Santiago de Chile, novels, 2012

Personal anthology , stories, poems, prose; Punto de lectura, 2012

 

Ampuero with his book One Way Trip

One Way Trip , essays, chronicles and prose; Lápix editores, 2012

Stories , practically all the stories written to date; Planeta AE&I, Lima, 2013 (expanded reissues: 2016, 2017)

Taxi driver sans Robert de Niro , short story, Zinnia Éditions, 2013, Lyon, France.

Musical Creatures and Other Stories , a selection of stories from Plan Lector, Bizarro editions, 2014

Loreto , novel, Planeta AE&I, 2014

Invisible drums , chronicles and essays, PEISA , 2014

It happened between two eyelids , novel, Planeta AE&I, 2015

Beyond the love of dogs", selection of stories Plan Lector, Bizarro editions, 2017.

Intimate and Wild , short story selection, TusQuets, Mexico, 2017

Lone Wolves , short story, PEISA , 2017

The Witch of Lima , memoirs, TusQuets, Lima, 2018

Lone Wolves and Other Stories , PEISA , Lima, 2018.

While dreams burn , new selection of stories, TusQuets, Colombia, 2019.

Essential Ampuero Volume I, selected stories 1972-1996, Booket, Planeta, Lima, 2019.

Never in my life , stories, Planeta AE&I, Lima, 2019.

Lima Quartet , novels, TusQuets, Lima, 2019.

Essential Ampuero Volume II, selected stories 2005-2019, Booket, Planeta, Lima, 2019.

Six lost chapters and other misplacements", miscellany, TusQuets, Lima, 2021.

Run Run. The sad and excessive story of a captive fox , a children's story illustrated by Camila Gómez. Lima, Planeta juvenil, 2022.

The First Storyteller", short story and object book, with illustrations by Casandra and Joshua Tola. Lima, Lunwerg editores, 2022.

"I gave you so much life", five stories and a chronicle. TusQuets, Lima, 2024.

With affection,

Ruben