Carlos
Franz

Carlos Franz was born the child of Chilean diplomats in Geneva in 1959. He studied law and sociology in Chile and lived for some periods of time in the Argentine before returning to Chile.
He published his first novel “Santiago cero” in 1989. Two years before, the manuscript had already won the first prize in a Latin American Literature competition. In the jury’s statement, we read that “Santiago cero” is a book “that is deeply influenced by Chile’s recent history”. As well as novels, Franz has also published several stories and worked as a journalist and critic for various newspapers and magazines. In addition, he was Professor of Literature at Georgetown University, Washington DC, and at the Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago de Chile.

Franz belongs to the authors’ movement Joven Narrativa Chilena (Young Chilean Narrative Art), the authors of which oppose pathos in prose writing by means of structured observation, an economy of expressive form, and a lack of artificial sentimentality or rhetoric. Despite a tone that is often gloomy, the authors of the Joven Narrativa Chilena have established a wide readership in Chile.
Franz was awarded the Premio Planeta for his novel “El lugar donde estuvo el Paraiso” (Where Paradise Was Once 1996), which centres on a dramatic family story before the impressive background of the Amazon.

“If it is true that politics and literature cannot be separated, then literature is my form of political action; or to put it more precisely – by writing, I exercise my inalienable right to protest in a sphere where there is no place for compromise.