Gabriel Garcia Marquez

(1928-)

Was born in Aracataca, Colombia, and studied law and journalism in Bogota. During the 1950s, he worked as a newspaper reporter, and in 1954, while a foreign correspondent in Europe, began writing creatively. Since 1961, he has lived in Barcelona and Mexico, directing films and writing fiction. Garcia Marquez is Latin America's most important contemporary novelist, celebrated as a genius of the poetic imagination and virtuoso of magical realism. He won the 1982 Nobel Prize for literature and is largely responsible for the increasing visibility and popularity of writers of Spanish decent.

Pub Date: 6/28/98