Lina Meruane

Lina Meruane Boza (born 1970) is a Chilean writer and professor. Her work, written in Spanish, has been translated into English, Italian, Portuguese, German, and French. In 2011 she won the Anna Seghers-Preis for the quality of her work, and in 2012 the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize for her novel Sangre en el ojo.
Biography
Born in Santiago, Chile, Lina Meruane is of Palestinian and Italian descent. She is the niece of actress Nelly Meruane and comedian . She started writing as a storyteller and cultural journalist. In 1997 she received a writing grant from the (FONDART) to finish her first book of stories. The following year she published Las infantas, a book that received a very positive critique from Chilean reviewers, as well as writer Roberto Bolaño:
Meruane published two novels before leaving for New York to do her doctorate studies in Spanish-American literature at New York University. In the United States she received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in 2004 (for the novel Fruta Podrida), and another in 2010 from the National Endowment for the Arts (for Sangre en el ojo). In 2011 she received the Anna Seghers-Preis, and the following year she won the 20th Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Award for Sangre en el ojo, during the Guadalajara International Book Fair, with a jury made up of the writers Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Antonio Ortuño, and Cristina Rivera Garza.
She currently teaches Latin American literature and cultures at New York University. She was the founder and director of the independent label Brutas Editoras, which published books from Santiago and Manhattan.
Works
Short stories
Las infantas, Planeta, Santiago, Chile, 1998 (Eterna Cadencia, Argentina, 2010),
Novels translated into English
Seeing Red translated by Megan McDowell, Deep Vellum, USA (Atlantic Books, UK, 2016), ; original edition Sangre en el ojo
Nervous System translated by Megan McDowell, forthcoming, Graywolf, USA, 2021 (Atlantic Books, UK, 2021); original edition Sistema Nervioso
Novels in original Spanish
Póstuma, Planeta, Santiago, 2000 (Oficina Do Livro, Portugal, 2001)
Cercada, Cuarto Propio, Santiago, 2000 (Cuneta Editores, Santiago, 2014 with prologue by Lorena Amaro)
Fruta podrida, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Santiago, 2007 (Eterna Cadencia, 2015),
Sangre en el ojo, Caballo de Troya, Spain, 2012 (Penguin Random House, 2015)
Sistema Nervioso, Penguin Random House, Chile & Spain, 2019
Drama
Un lugar donde caerse muerta / Not a leg to stand on, dramatic adaptation of the novel Fruta podrida by the author and the Chilean theater director Martín Balmaceda; bilingual edition with prologue by Guillermo Calderón and English translation by Sarah Thomas, Diaz Grey Editores, 2012 (Trópico Sur, Uruguay, 2013)
Nonfiction
Viral Voyages. Tracing AIDS in Latin America, translated by Andrea Rosenberg, Palgrave MacMillan, 2014, ; original edition Viajes virales: la crisis del contagio global en la escritura del sida, essay, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Santiago 2012,
Volverse palestina, chronicle, Literal Publishing, USA / Conaculta, Mexico, 2013,
Volverse palestina/Volvernos otros, chronicle/personal essay; Literatura Random House, Santiago, 2014
Contra los hijos, essay-diatribe, Tumbona, Mexico, 2014, and Penguin Random House, 2018
Visual essays
Cinco personas en busca de su personaje, ongoing project, first part directed by Luciano Piazza
In English language journals
Two Lines (California), Bomb (New York), The Literary Review (New York), Brick (Canada), N+1 (New York), Words without Borders (New York), Drunken Boat (US), The White Review (UK), Litro Magazine (UK), Brown Book (Arab Emirates), Asymptote (US), among others in several languages.
Grants and awards
1997: Grant. National Council for the Arts, FONDART, Chile, for Las Infantas (National Council of Culture and the Arts)
2004: Grant. John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Latin American and Caribbean Fellowship for Fruta podrida
2006: Award. Best Unpublished Novel, for Fruta podrida (National Council of Culture and the Arts)
2010: Grant. National Endowment for the Arts, NEA, for Seeing Red.
2011: Award. Anna Seghers-Preis, por her literary work
2012: Award. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize, for Sangre en el ojo
2015: Award. Institute of Chilean-Arab Culture Award, for Volverse Palestina
2015: Award. Cálamo Another Look, for Fruta podrida (Zaragoza)
2017: Grant. Artists-in-Berlin Program, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service; for Sistema Nervioso.
References
1970 births
20th-century Chilean women writers
21st-century Chilean women writers
Chilean educators
Chilean women educators
21st-century Chilean novelists
Chilean people of Italian descent
Chilean people of Palestinian descent
20th-century Chilean short story writers
Chilean women short story writers
Living people
New York University alumni
New York University faculty
National Endowment for the Arts Fellows
Writers from Santiago
Chilean expatriates in the United States
Chilean women novelists