Juan Gelman (1930-2014) was born of Jewish Ukrainian parents in Buenos Aires and grew up amid a myriad of languages, acquiring a fascination for words early on in life. A strange blending of social engagement and wordplay expressed in a colloquial language steeped in paradox and poignancy characterizes his poetic oeuvre, which includes more than twenty-five titles. Having actively participated in the leftist movements that brought back Perón in 1973, he was sent to Europe in 1975 to work in public relations as a journalist. After the military coup of 1976, he lived in exile in Italy, France, Spain, and Mexico, working as a translator and journalist and denouncing human rights abuses, which also involved the personal loss as his son, Marcelo, and his pregnant daughter-in-law, who were disappeared during the dictatorship. Gelman, considered to be one of Latin America's foremost poets, received numerous accolades during his lifetime, including the Argentine National Poetry Prize, the Juan Rulfo Prize in Latin American and Caribbean Literature, the Pablo Neruda Prize, the Queen Sofia Prize in Ibero-American Poetry, the Lateo Prize, and, the most prestigious Spanish-language literary award, the Cervantes Prize.
