Jorge Marchant Lazcano

Infobox Writer
name = Jorge Marchant Lazcano
birthdate = March 9, 1950
birthplace = Santiago, Chile
occupation = Novelist, playwright and journalist
nationality = Chilean

Jorge Marchant Lazcano is a Chilean writer, playwright, screenwriter, novelist and journalist. He was born in Santiago, (Chile) on March 9, 1950.

Biography

He is the son of Jorge Marchant Montalva and María Ester Lazcano Cuevas. He had a religious, conservative and very formal education of which Jorge partially untied, when he began to study journalism at the Universidad de Chile in 1969.

tart in the literature

He made his first contributions of literary type for the disappeared Editorial Quimantú, a former publishing house of Chile. Very soon he discovered a new form of literature that helped him to write "“La Beatriz Ovalle”", his first novel, published in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1977. That book became later one of the biggest successes of Chilean publications, although the coup d'état of General Augusto Pinochet was a hard misfortune for the culture and literature of this country.

A writer with strength

His first job as a journalist was for Revista Paula, a magazine dedicated to the women's world. Simultaneously he wrote literary reviews for the evening newspaper La Segunda, but his vocation as a journalist did not consolidate and in the eighties Televisión Nacional de Chile, a TV channel from Santiago, hired him as a screenwriter. In the meantime he published two new titles, "“La noche que nunca ha gestado el día”", a short novel (1982), and "“Matar a la dama de las camelias”", a short fiction book (1986). He also released two new theater plays during those years: "“Gabriela”" (1981), about the life of Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and "“Última Edición”" (1983), an ironic portrait of his journalistic participation in the Revista Paula magazine. Many of his tales were included in Chilean and international anthologies. Regarding of that, his most important achievement was his copartnership in the book "“My deep dark pain is love”", an anthology of gay narrative, published by Gay Sunshine Press in San Francisco, were he shares his works with authors like Manuel Puig, Reinaldo Arenas and Luis Zapata.

creenwriter of television series

The job of a television series writer had not the best reputation during those years and Jorge Marchant was hardly criticized because of it. But, despite everything, it opened the door for other writers willing to start in the budding industry of television. His most relevant creation during that stage was "“Volver a Empezar”" (1990). During the nineties Jorge Marchant wrote many television series that are considered a classic in the genre. He also builds the foundations for a television playwright of wide repercussions in Chile.

uccessful return to the world of literature

In 1999 he released a new drama named "“No me pidas la luna”" and in 2002 Jorge published the novel "“Me parece que no somos felices”", followed by "“La joven de blanco”" (2004). Both novels are of historical type. Later appears "“Sangre como la mía”" (2006), which was the reason to give the Altazor award to him (it is the Award of the National Arts in Chile). His most recent creation is the novel "“El amante sin rostro”".

Although Jorge Marchant officially lives in Santiago, the capital city of Chile, he spends more or less half of the year in New York, with a complete dedication to the job of writing.

Works

Published books

*"La Beatriz Ovalle"
*"La noche que nunca ha gestado el día"
*"Matar a la dama de las Camelias"
*"Me parece que no somos felices"
*"La joven de blanco"
*"Sangre como la mía"
*"El amante sin rostro"

Participation in anthologies

*"My deep dark pain is love"

Playwright

*"Gabriela"
*"Última Edición"
*"No me pidas la luna"

Awards

*"Premio Altazor de Novela – Versión 2007"