Héctor Abad Faciolince

Héctor Abad Faciolince was born in 1958 in Medellín, Colombia. In this city, he pursued his studies—none of which he completed—in medicine, philosophy, and journalism. After being expelled from the Pontifical Bolivarian University (due to a disrespectful article he wrote against the Pope), he traveled to Italy, where he studied modern literature. He returned to Colombia in 1987, but the same year, following the murder of his father by paramilitaries and threats against his own life, he sought refuge in Italy, where he taught Spanish until 1992. Upon returning to Colombia once more, he worked as a translator from Italian and began his writing career. He has published four novels ("Agnosta" (2004), "Asuntos de un hidalgo disoluto" (1994), "Fragmentos de amor furtivo" (1998), and "Basura" (2000), with which he won the First Prize for New Narrative from Casa de America in Madrid), two short story collections ("Malos pensamientos" (1991) and "El amanecer de un marido" (2010)), travel writings "Oriente empieza en el Cairo" (2001), a personal dictionary "Palabras Sueltas" (2002), and a book of an indeterminate genre "Recipes for Disenchanted Women" (1996). "Oblivion: A Memoir" earned him the Wola-Duke Human Rights Award in 2012.