Luis Chitarroni has died today at the age of 64. Writer and translator, genius scholar and title editor unforgettable, he was born in Buenos Aires in 1958.
According to the Argentine Academy of Lettersof which he was a member, was editor for Sudamericana of fundamental authors of Argentine literature such as Ricardo Piglia, Rodolfo Fogwill, César Aira, Daniel Guebel, Sergio Bizzio, María Negroni, Charlie Feiling and many more. In recent years, he was editor of the independent label, La Bestia Equilátera, one of the most influential in the current literary field.
His books include “Silhouettes”, which collects the columns he wrote for the mythical magazine Babel. He later published the novel “The Paleface” and later on, “The death of the philosophers. At the hands of the writers,
His most famous book “Peripecias of the no: diary of an unfinished novel” was published in 2007, and narrates the behind the scenes of the creation of a literary magazine, inspired by “Babel”. A year later “A thousand cups of tea” came out. His stories are compiled in “The polytheistic night.”
In 2021 he became a member of the Argentine Academy of Letters, as a member of number: “Like all consecration and recognition, this does not stop scaring me and perplexing me, since I am a chronophobic who is terrified by the minutes that pass. I do not think that I am a chronophobic has been admitted by dictionaries, neither by Casares nor by Covarrubias, which is my favourite,” he said in his acceptance speech for his appointment.
In recent years, he has taught literature courses in Malba, from which the volume “Brief Argentine history of Latin American literature (from Borges)” emerged, edited by that institution.
A great conversationalist, without limits or prejudices, he could reflect on any subject that was proposed to him. In the last interview he gave to NOTICIAS, he declared regarding the situation of the book today: “It is a time for the book to be replaced by alternative ways of reading. One suspects that the book was also an invention, novelty at the time, which continues to attract attention. But it could happen that it finally disappears, without causing so much damage to the culture. And even with some benefits. There is something authoritarian in the fact of wanting to impose what we believe to be the values of the book”.
Editorial Interzona has republished its most important texts in recent years: El carapálida, La noche politeísta and Peripecias del no.
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