Rodrigo Hasbún (born 1981) is a

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

n writer. He was born in

Cochabamba Cochabamba (; ) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital (political), capital of the Cochabamba Department and the list of cities in Bolivia, fourth largest city in Bolivia, with ...

. He has published a collection of short stories and two novels to date; his second novel ''Los Afectos'' (''Affections'') has been translated in 10 languages. In 2017, Hasbun was included in the Bogotá 39 list of the most promising young writers in

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

Biography

He studied

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

in Bolivia and, after finishing university, Hasbún spent a year, between 2003 and 2004, in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...

, a country where his grandparents and also his father had lived. Afterwards, he pursued a postgraduate degree in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

(2004–2005). The first collection of his stories, ''Cinco'', appeared in 2006, and the following year he was selected by the

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival (), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was d ...

and Bogotá World Capital of the Book as one of the 39 most important Latin American writers under 39 years old. Based on the short story ''Carretera'', which was part of Cinco, Bolivian director Martín Boulocq shot his second feature film, ''Los viejos'', which was released in 2011. Hasbún and Boulocq (born in Cochabamba in 1981) grew up together and have done many things in common (the filmmaker was also part of the band where the writer played). He published his first award-winning novel, ''El lugar del cuerpo'', in 2007, and two years later he was selected in the list of the top ten outstanding Latin American writers by the American magazine ''Zoetrope: All Story''. The following year, he was chosen by the British magazine ''Granta'', which also has a Spanish version, as one of the 22 best Spanish-language writers under 35 years old. In 2009, Hasbún moved to

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

to pursue a doctorate at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. Hasbún's doctoral thesis focuses on the intimate diaries of Latin American writers, and he himself has been keeping a personal diary for twelve years, which may be his "most important writing." He has around thirty notebooks written, safely stored in his parents' house in Bolivia. Once he completed his studies at Cornell, Hasbún moved to the Canadian city of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in 2014.

References

Living people Bolivian writers 1981 births {{Bolivia-writer-stub