James Cañón
Encyclopedia
Born and raised in Ibagué
, Colombia
, James Cañón received his B.A in advertising from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano of Bogotá. He moved to New York in the mid 1990s to study English, and later earned his MFA in creative writing from Columbia University
. His short stories and essays have been published in numerous magazines in the U.S., Belgium and France. He lives in New York.
, (ISBN 978-0061140389) was originally written in English, his second language. It was first published in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. by Harper Collins in 2007. Praised internationally as "An important contribution to American literature," the novel tells the story of Mariquita, a Colombian village that's forever altered the day a band of communist guerrillas takes out all but three of its men. Left to fend for themselves, the abandoned women slowly emerge from their supporting roles as wives and daughters to become unwitting founders of a radically socialist society, a metamorphosis that Kirkus Reviews
has described as "Slyly pushing the envelope that Aristophanes
opened with Lysistrata
." Cañón's novel has been published in over twenty countries and translated into French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Hebrew, Korean, Turkish, Arabic, Croatian and Polish. The film adaptation of it, called Without Men, is set to be released in 2011. The cast includes Eva Longoria and Chris Slater, and it'll be directed by Gabriela Tagliavini.
Ibagué
Ibagué is the capital of the department of Tolima in Colombia. It is situated 1,285 m above sea level, on the eastern slopes of the Cordillera Central between the Chipalo and Combeima rivers, tributaries of the Coello River...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, James Cañón received his B.A in advertising from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano of Bogotá. He moved to New York in the mid 1990s to study English, and later earned his MFA in creative writing from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. His short stories and essays have been published in numerous magazines in the U.S., Belgium and France. He lives in New York.
Works
Cañón's debut novel, Tales from the Town of WidowsTales from the Town of Widows
Tales from the Town of Widows is a lyrical novel written by Colombian-born author James Cañón. It tells the story of Mariquita, a mountain village that’s forever altered the day a band of communist guerrillas forcibly recruits all but three of its men...
, (ISBN 978-0061140389) was originally written in English, his second language. It was first published in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. by Harper Collins in 2007. Praised internationally as "An important contribution to American literature," the novel tells the story of Mariquita, a Colombian village that's forever altered the day a band of communist guerrillas takes out all but three of its men. Left to fend for themselves, the abandoned women slowly emerge from their supporting roles as wives and daughters to become unwitting founders of a radically socialist society, a metamorphosis that Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...
has described as "Slyly pushing the envelope that Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
opened with Lysistrata
Lysistrata
Lysistrata is one of eleven surviving plays written by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War...
." Cañón's novel has been published in over twenty countries and translated into French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Hebrew, Korean, Turkish, Arabic, Croatian and Polish. The film adaptation of it, called Without Men, is set to be released in 2011. The cast includes Eva Longoria and Chris Slater, and it'll be directed by Gabriela Tagliavini.
Awards and honors
- Prix du Premier Meilleur Roman Étranger, 2008 (Paris)
- Prix des Lecteurs Vincennes, 2008 (Vincennes)
- Prix des Lecteurs du Télégramme Finalist, 2009 (Brittany)
- Edmund White Fiction Award Finalist, 2008 (New York)
- Lambda Award for Best Debut Fiction Finalist, 2008 (Los Angeles)
- One Brown Book, One Nation Program Finalist, 2008 (U.S.)
- New York Foundation for the Arts Fiction Fellowship, 2008 (New York)
- Queens Council on the Arts Award, 2008 (New York)
- A School Library Journal's Best Adult Book for High School Students, 2008 (U.S.)
- A Kirkus Reviews’ Top Pick for Reading Groups, 2007 (U.S.)
- Stanford Calderwood Fiction Fellowship, 2007 (New York)
- Urban Artist Initiative Fiction Award, 2006 (New York)
- Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative Fiction Finalist, 2002 (Switzerland)
- National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Award, 2002 & 2001 (U.S.)
- Henfield Foundation Prize for Excellence in Fiction, 2001 (U.S.)
External links
- James Cañón's Official Web Site
- Harper Collin's Author's Page
- Washington Post (Review)
- The New Yorker (Review)
- Le Monde (Review/French)
- The Australian (Review)
- Revista de Letras (Review/Spanish)
- El Espectador (Interview/Spanish)
- Semana (Profile/Spanish)