The acclaimed writer Miguel Mejides dies

June 14, 2018

The writer from Camagüey Miguel Mejides, an author who brings prestige to contemporary Cuban letters, passed away this Wednesday in Havana at the age of 68, a victim of cancer.

Born in Nuevitas on May 8, 1950, he burst onto the literary scene with Tiempo de hombres, a book that won the David Prize for short stories in 1977.
From then on, he stood out for the depth and purity of his prose and the vigor of his characters, virtues that placed him among the best writers of his generation.

His mastery of the short story was confirmed with the publication of El jardín de las flores silvestres, Uneac Prize 1981, and Rumba Palace. With the latter he earned the international Juan Rulfo Prize, from Radio France, in 1994.

In the novel, Mejides also delivered texts of notable significance such as La habitación terrestre and Perversiones en el Prado. The work La saga del tigre was distinguished in 2016 with the Italo Calvino Novel Prize.

His narratives have been included in numerous anthologies and translated into English, French, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, German, Arabic, and Polish. His texts were added to the catalog of the prestigious Feltrinelli publishing house and in recognition of his intense work in favor of cultural ties between that country and Cuba, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

An active member of Uneac, he belonged to its National Council and served as vice president of the Association of Writers. The Ministry of Culture honored him with the Distinction for National Culture.

Among his views regarding the role of the writer is the one he expressed in an interview published in 2008: "The writer is always in the function of criticizing society, the writer is a critical essence within the body of society. The writer is not someone who applauds easily, impossible, because life, and not only social circumstances, psychology, individualities, all of that, results in a discourse and the writer does not write for anyone in particular, one writes as one can, not as one wants and I know my limitations. What I want is to tell stories."

Source: Granma