Eugenia Rico
Encyclopedia
Eugenia Rico is a Spanish novelist, poet and journalist.
She claims that literature is an "act" while writing bestselling stories that have been awarded Spanish most important prizes. DER SPIEGEL in Germany and EL PAIS in Spain describes her "as the Virginia Wolf of the Facebook Era".
She traveled through the whole world, including India, South America, China and Africa until a "saddhu" told her to come home and write.
This Celtic writer was born and grown up in a remote part of Asturias, a sort of Macondo
where her grandmother was still telling the stories of their ancestors. Maybe this and the shadow of her great uncle the play-writer Alejandro Casona
led her to decide at the age of five that she will be a writer as she told her mother. At the age of six she won her first literary competition, at eleven she published her first short story. And ever since she tried to live as a writer. In fact for Eugenia Rico "literature is an act".
She studied Law and International Relations in Oviedo
, Toulouse and Brussels but give up everything to consecrate herself to literature.
Despite of this, she suffer a big existential crisis after a grave illness and decide to travel around the world searching for the Truth. Looking in all religions she travel to South America, to Africa and through Asia. In her big travels in India she meets an Hindu Shaddu in the Himalayas who tell her she have to come back and write because her books will change the lives of many people. She also tells her her house will be set on fire. It was only after that actually happens when Eugenia Rico devotes her entire life to literature.
She start writing and, after a hard period in which she even sell flowers in the street and she worked in the reconversion of mining communities, her first novel "Sad lovers" was a great success winning her big recognition and after the publication of "The white death"
( dealing with the lost of her little brother) El País proclaimed her one of Spanish-speaking world most exciting young writers.
She has renovated the art of fiction in Spain and is considered the founder in Spain of a new kind of novel "The European Novel" also called " The interactive novel". She has been a best seller author as well as one beloved by the critics.
"An exciting voice in contemporary literature with extraordinary characters" according to El Mundo.
A respected journalist she contributes to El País, El Mundo
, La Revista de occidente,La Nouvelle Revue Francaise and Der Spiegel
.
She has been the first Spaniard selected as a "Writer in Residence" in the prestigious Writer's Workshop of the University of Iowa also known as the Harvard of the Writers.
She claims that literature is an "act" while writing bestselling stories that have been awarded Spanish most important prizes. DER SPIEGEL in Germany and EL PAIS in Spain describes her "as the Virginia Wolf of the Facebook Era".
Life
Coming from a poor family she won her first literary award at the age of five. She studied Law, International Relations,Dramatic Art and Cinema but she abandoned everything to search for literature and poetry.She traveled through the whole world, including India, South America, China and Africa until a "saddhu" told her to come home and write.
This Celtic writer was born and grown up in a remote part of Asturias, a sort of Macondo
Macondo
For the oil spill, see: Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosionMacondo is a fictional town described in Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. It is the home town of the Buendía family.-Aracataca:...
where her grandmother was still telling the stories of their ancestors. Maybe this and the shadow of her great uncle the play-writer Alejandro Casona
Alejandro Casona
Alejandro Rodríguez Álvarez, known as Alejandro Casona was a Spanish poet and playwright born in Besullo, Spain, a member of the Generation of '27. Casona received his bachelor's degree in Gijon and later studied at the University of Murcia. After Franco's rise in 1936, he was forced, like many...
led her to decide at the age of five that she will be a writer as she told her mother. At the age of six she won her first literary competition, at eleven she published her first short story. And ever since she tried to live as a writer. In fact for Eugenia Rico "literature is an act".
She studied Law and International Relations in Oviedo
Oviedo
Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city....
, Toulouse and Brussels but give up everything to consecrate herself to literature.
Despite of this, she suffer a big existential crisis after a grave illness and decide to travel around the world searching for the Truth. Looking in all religions she travel to South America, to Africa and through Asia. In her big travels in India she meets an Hindu Shaddu in the Himalayas who tell her she have to come back and write because her books will change the lives of many people. She also tells her her house will be set on fire. It was only after that actually happens when Eugenia Rico devotes her entire life to literature.
She start writing and, after a hard period in which she even sell flowers in the street and she worked in the reconversion of mining communities, her first novel "Sad lovers" was a great success winning her big recognition and after the publication of "The white death"
( dealing with the lost of her little brother) El País proclaimed her one of Spanish-speaking world most exciting young writers.
She has renovated the art of fiction in Spain and is considered the founder in Spain of a new kind of novel "The European Novel" also called " The interactive novel". She has been a best seller author as well as one beloved by the critics.
"An exciting voice in contemporary literature with extraordinary characters" according to El Mundo.
A respected journalist she contributes to El País, El Mundo
El Mundo (Spain)
El Mundo is the second largest printed and the largest digital daily newspaper in Spain and one of the newspapers of record in that country, with a daily circulation topping 300,000 readers for the printed edition and 24 million unique web visitors per month for the...
, La Revista de occidente,La Nouvelle Revue Francaise and Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
.
She has been the first Spaniard selected as a "Writer in Residence" in the prestigious Writer's Workshop of the University of Iowa also known as the Harvard of the Writers.
External links
- http://www.culturamas.es/blog/2010/05/06/leo-zelada-dialoga-con-eugenia-rico/ Leo Zelada talks with Eugenia Rico
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHOaQKtSJzE A place in the word. 1
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3UCj-PlvNs&feature=related A place in the word. 2
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZthFikp_P4Q&feature=related A place in the word. 3
- http://eugeniarico.blogspot.com Eugenia Rico's blog
- http://www.eugeniarico.com Eugenia Rico's website
- http://class.uiowa.edu/dwllc/news-events/eugenia-rico-shambaugh-house-reading-ui-international-writing-program-event Eugenia Rico in the University of Iowa famous Writer's Workshop