- José Watanabe
José Watanabe (
1946 -April 25 ,2007 ) was aPeru vianpoet who won a number of literary awards.Watanabe was born in Laredo, a large
sugar cane farm in northernPeru . His father was aJapan ese immigrant and his mother was a Peruvian ofAndean origin. In a very intimate way, Watanabe fused his two deep cultural backgrounds in brief but intense poetic work.In 1970, Watanabe shared, with
Antonio Cillóniz , first prize in the "Young Poet" contest organized by "Cuadernos trimestrales de Poesía." This award has also been bestowed upon poets such asJavier Heraud andCesar Calvo . He won the award "Young Poet of Peru" in 1971 with his first book, "Album de Familia".After a silence of almost two decades, he resumed publishing in 1989 with "El huso de la palabra". After that came "Historia Natural" (1994), "Cosas del Cuerpo" (1999) and "Habitó entre Nosotros" (2002). In 2000, he published in
Colombia an anthology entitled "El Guardián del Hielo" and in 2004 he published inSpain "Elogio del Refrenamiento", a comprehensive anthology that won numerous accolades."He is one of the few living Peruvian authors that can be qualified as essential" wrote
Esperanza Lopez Parada inBabelia , the literary supplement ofEl Pais .Fact|date=June 2007Watanabe was also involved in the film industry as a screenwriter, production designer and art director. He died of
cancer in April 2007.External links
* [http://josewatanabe.tripod.com/antesala.htm Home page]
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