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Olga Fernandez Valdés (Havana, Cuba). Cuban writer and journalist. Index 1. Biography 2. Literary production 2.1 Books for Children and Youngsters 2.2 Short Stories (Tales) 2.3 Essays 2.4 Articles, interviews, chronicles 3. Awards 4. References 1. Biography Olga Fernández Valdés is a BA in History and Journalism from the University of Havana. She holds a Doctorate in Literature from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador [Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador]. She began her career in journalism as managing editor of the Alma Mater magazine of the University of Havana. For twenty years she worked as a journalist for Cuba International Magazine, of the Latin American News Agency Prensa Latina (1973-1983). She wrote reports and conducted interviews in several European countries. Her essays and articles in that genre have appeared in newspapers and specialized journals of Havana, Caracas, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Vienna, Warsaw, Krakow, Moscow, Bucharest and Berlin, among other cities. She was a regular contributor to the weekly El País Cultural, of the daily journal El País, Montevideo, Uruguay. In Ecuador, her articles and columns have appeared in Diners, Culture (published by Banco Central del Ecuador), Eskeletra and Chasqui (CIESPAL). During a decade she was editor in the ‘José Martí’ publishing house in Havana, specializing in foreign languages (1983-1992), and also conducted research on José Martí ‘s journalistic work in the Centro de Estudios Martianos [Marti Studies Center] (1980-1990). She was invited as a professor to the Mastery courses of Universidad de los Andes [Andes University], Venezuela (1989, 1990, 1991), and in Universidad Andina “Simón Bolívar” [“Simón Bolívar” Andean University], sub-headquarters Ecuador (1993). She was also a speaker at El Ateneo, at Universidad Central de Caracas [The Athenaeum, Caracas Central University] (1990), and the University of Havana as well. She has participated also as a speaker, presenting her works in literary international events, such as the V Jornada Universitaria Internacional de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil [Fifth International University Conference of Children’s and Juvenile Literature] (Mérida, Venezuela, April 1989), and Encuentro de escritoras mexicanas y cubanas [Meeting of Mexican and Cuban writers], organized by Colegio de México and Casa de Las Américas in Havana (April 9-13, 1990). In this international meeting of women narrators Olga Fernandez was member of the jury for “Concurso de cuentos sobre la mujer” [Short Stories about Women Contest], sponsored by both institutions. She has also given courses of Creative Literature in Montevideo (Uruguay) and Casa de la Cultura of Quito (Ecuador). In addition, she was International Adviser of Literature at the "José Martí" Department of Ateneo de Caracas [Caracas Athenaeum] from 1989 to 1991, as well as invited speaker at the Primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil [First Latin American Congress of Literature for Children and Youngsters] (Montevideo, Uruguay, June 1994). As part of the activities derived from such event, she taught the course “El arte de escribir ficción” [“The Art of Fiction Writing”], at the headquarters of the "José Martí" Foundation of that city. She offered this course again in Ecuador’s capital, at Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana "Benjamín Carrión" ["Benjamín Carrión" Ecuadoran House of Culture (1995), and then in creative writing workshops, addressed to new writers (1996-2010). In 1993 Olga Fernández travelled to Uruguay with her husband, also writer and journalist Agenor Marti, together with their two children, and later to Quito, Ecuador, where she resides today. In Quito she has been a professor of Language and Literature in Universidad San Francisco [San Francisco University], Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador [Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador] and in Universidad de los Hemisferios [University of the Hemispheres] 2. Literary production Olga Fernández has published twenty two books, some of them covering literature for children and youngsters, short story, essay, journalism, and linguistic communication techniques. Several of her stories have been included in various Cuban and foreign anthologies. Her first book was the historical account for youngsters Dos días con el general Antonio [Two days with General Antonio], published in 1980. As she states: “The journalistic work that served as a trigger to write that first story was my interview with an elderly man who had known the Liberation Army General Antonio Maceo in Mantua, the most western town of the island, where on January 22, 1896, General Maceo ended his invasive campaign for the independence of Cuba. “Almost without trying, I began to browse the newly released report and the notes of historical research supporting the report, until I discovered I had in my hands a little-known subject that would serve me as plot point in a story. Of course, since my adolescence l had been thinking of writing fiction, but needed, in the close encounter with reality, the human factor and its conflict, which I received from my journalistic work. To this I added the scenario, the tone and structure of the narrative work in Dos días con el general Antonio, which won the 1980 “Edad de Oro” Award. “My studies of history and my experiences as a reporter were pivotal in my development as a writer. Journalism was a task that opened for me the confines of literature when I began to explore the passages of the Cuban history which I had included in chronicles and reports, this time in a different manner. Thanks to the strategy of subjectivizing the information through the warp of language, the fictional characters of my books came alive – with a life of their own -- immersed in an atmosphere of symbolic connotations whose essence was based on men and women I had interviewed in the most remote corners of Cuba, as well as in the most unpredictable places of other countries during my twenty years of active journalism, to the point that, after more than thirty years, I still incorporate in my novels reminiscences of those scenarios as a sort of saga”. .

2.1 Books for Children and Youngsters 2011: Circo del Nuevo Mundo [Circle of the New World]. Quito: Eskeletra. 1992: El abanderado [The Bearer]. Havana: Gente Nueva. 1991: Mi amigo José Martí [My Friend José Martí]. Caracas: Alfadil. 1990: A la vanguardia, el General [To the Forefront, the General]. Havana: Gente Nueva. 1988: Con mi abuelo y sus amigos [With my Grandfather and His Friends]. Havana: Gente Nueva. 1981: Dos días con el General Antonio [Two Days With General Antonio]. Havana: Gente Nueva. 2.2 Books of Short Stories 1990: La otra carga del capitán Montiel [The Other Charge of Captain Montiel]. Havana: Letras Cubanas. 1988: Niña del arpa (Girl of the Harp]. Havana: Unión. Many of the stories in Niña del arpa [Girl of the Harp], as well as in other books, have been included in several Cuban and foreign anthologies, and in magazines and newspapers of Havana, Caracas, Vienna, Berlin, Prague, Moscow, Krakow, Warsaw, Bucharest, Montevideo and Quito.

2.3 Books of Essays 2003: Carpentier y Colón sin máscaras. El arpa y la sombra como ficción del Nuevo Mundo [Carpentier and Columbus Without Masks. The Harp and the Shadow as a New World Fiction (Unpublished). 2002: Palabra, furia y razón. Sobre autores y personajes literarios [Word, Fury and Reason. On literary authors and characters]. Quito: Abya -Yala.

2.4 Books of Articles, Interviews, Chronicles and Reports 2005: Solo de música cubana [Solo of Cuban Music] (articles, interviews and chronicles). Quito: Abya –Yala. 1995: Strings and Hide. Havana: José Martí. Publicaciones en Lenguas Extranjeras. 1986: Las mujeres y el sentido del humor [Women and the Sense of Humour]. Havana: Letras Cubanas. 1984: En do mayor [In C Major] (Interviews). Havana: Ed.Universitaria. 1984: A pura guitarra y tambor [Pure Guitar and Drum] (chronicles). Santiago de Cuba: Oriente. 1982: Por esta independencia [For This Independence] (articles). Havana: Ed. Universitaria. 1980: Los frutos de un mañana [The Fruits of Tomorrow] (reports). In collaboration with Agenor Martí. Havana: Ed. Universitaria. 2.5 Unpublished Novels La muerte en la trampa [Death in the Trap] (Cuba-18th Century). Dama de compañía [Companionship Lady] (Contemporary Cuba). Mientras sepas que estoy vivo [As Long as You Know I’m Alive] (Historical novel). Separate Artícles “La Habana en que nació José Martí” [“The Havana Where José Martí Was Born”], In Anuario del Centro de Estudios Martianos [Marti’s Studies Centre Yearbook], Nr. 12, Havana, 1989. “Lo que me dejó el periodismo” [“What Journalism Gave Me”], In Revista Latinoamericana de Comunicación “Chasqui” [“Chasqui” Latin American Revue of Communiczation], CIESPAL. Nr. 103, Quito, September 2008. Anthologies 2013: Detectives en acción [Detectives In Action] (On the detective novel). Quito: Acervo. 2013: El lado oscuro del crimen [The Dark Side of Crime] (On the black novel). Quito: Acervo. 2003: Cuentos fantásticos juveniles [Juvenile Fantastic Short Stories]. Quito: Eskeletra. In the anthologies including the work of this author is the volume Torturada (Vienna: Frauenverlag, 1993), whose selection, introductory study and notes were in charge of the prestigious researcher of women’s Latin American literature Dr. Erna Pfeiffer, Magister of the Institut Für Romanistik, Austria. The book A Place in the Sun? Women Writers in Twentieth-Century Cuba (Zed Books Ltd., London & New Jersey, 1997), of Dr. Catherine Davis, of the University of London, is an analysis made by this British researcher about the work of Cuban women authors, which includes the study of the short stories in Niña del arpa (Girl of the Harp), Catherine Davis states: “Olga Fernández’s prize-winning collection Niña del arpa (Girl of the Harp, 1989) is indicative of the 1980s tendency away from realism to fantasy. Although the stories, set in nineteenth-century colonial Cuba, are historical they elicit a strange timelessness and magic. In each story, written in polished prose, an object becomes the repository of infinite duration which contrasts with the transience of human life(…) All the stories in the collection intimate the existence of another dimension, another world of perpetuity, glimpsed by human beings (usually women) but ultimately out of reach except in death”. . In her analysis of the short story book Niña del arpa, the Cuban literary critic Madeline Cámara points out that this author’s tendency towards report, chronicle and the historical reconstruction account, already announced the prose of a fiction writer.

“When Olga Fernández decided to get into the colonial past of our history, she did not limit herself to epoch reconstruction, where a great part of our attempts by our narrative on this path has fallen (…) Fortunately, the journey proposed by Niña del arpa goes to the Cuban roots by combining both realistic and fantastic approaches without establishing any border (…) The author uses several technical resources to achieve the baroque effect in her speech. The most achieved work is undoubtedly Language (…) Hence, the impression that we are before an ornamented phrase, conceived with a goldsmith passion. However, the syntax of every phrase is smoothly shaped; the complexity comes from the links taking root amongst them within the composition of each story. Because Olga Fernández, although a lover of action and attentive to the progresses of dramatic tension, likes to suggest more than to tell, preferring the separate brush stroke when she draws her characters. Her technique resembles the chiaroscuro, ambiguity valid, as artistic resource”. . 3. Awards Between 1980 and 1993, Olga Fernández obtained fourteen literary and journalistic prizes, as well as sixteen mentions. 1991: “La Rosa Blanca” Special Award, given annually in Cuba to the best book of literature for children and youngsters, for A la vanguardia, el General To the Forefront, the General]. 1989: Contest Award in “La Edad de Oro” of children’s literature, for the book Mi amigo José Martí [My Friend José Martí]. 1989: “La Rosa Blanca” Special Award, given annually in [[Cuba to the best book of literature for children and youngster, for Con mi abuelo y sus amigos [With My Grandfather and His Friends]. 1989: “La Edad de Oro” Centenary Diploma, awarded for the first and only time by the Ministry of Culture of Cuba “to creators, promoters and cultural institutions that have worked with children and youngsters in a systematic, creative and rigorous manner (November 6, 1989). 1988: Award to the Short Story in the “26 de Julio” Contest for the book La otra carga   del  capitán Montiel [The Other Charge of Captain Montiel]. 1988: First Mention to the Short Story in “Casa de las Américas” Contest for the book Niña del arpa [Girl of the Harp]. 1986: Award in “La Edad de Oro” Contest of children’s literature for the book A la vanguardia, el General [To the Forefront, the General]. 1984: Interview Award in the “13 de Marzo” Contest, of the University of Havana, for the book En do mayor [In C Major]. 1983: Award in “La Edad de Oro” Contest of children’s literature for the book Con mi abuelo y sus amigos [With My Grandfather and His Friends]. 1982: Award to the Article in the “13 de Marzo” Contest, of the University of Havana, for the book Por esta independencia [For This Independence]. 1982: Awarded with the “Raúl Gómez García” Medal by Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Cultura de Cuba (SNTC) [Culture Workers National Union of Cuba]. 1980: Prize to Report in “13 de Marzo” Contest of the University of Havana, for the book Los frutos de un mañana [The Fruits of Tomorrow](in collaboration with Agenor Martí). 1980: Award in “La Edad de Oro” Contest of children’s literature for the book Dos días con el General Antonio [Two Days With General Antonio]. 1964: Awarded with the Literacy Medal by the State Council of the Republic of Cuba. 4. Some References Hernández Hormilla, Helen (2011). Mujeres en crisis. Aproximaciones a lo femenino en las narradoras cubanas de los noventa [Women in Crisis. Approaches to the Feminine Nature in the Cuban Narrators of the Nineties]. Havana: Acuario. Centro Félix Varela. Cabrera Delgado, Luis. La historia de la literatura infantil latinoamericana [History of Latin American Children’s Literature]. In Palabra viva--Cuba literaria, Havana,  November, 2009. La Jiribilla, Cuban cultural magazine. Havana, Vol. X, Nr. 547 (October-November, 2009). Orovio, Helio (2005). Prologue of the Cuban musicologist to the book Solo de música cubana [Solo of Cuban Music]. Andricaín, Sergio. “Los puntos sobre las íes [The Dots on the I’s]”. In Cuatrogatos (Revue of children’s literature). Nr. 2,  April-June, 2000. (http/: www.cuatrogatos.org/). Yáñez Mirta and Marilyn Bobes (1998). Estatuas de sal. Cuentistas cubanas contemporáneas [Statues of Salt. Contemporary Women Story Tellers]. Havana:  Unión. Cámara, Madeline (1992). “Concierto barroco para arpa” [Baroque Concert for Harp]. Havana: Letras Cubanas. Sánchez, Magaly. “Olga Fernández: éxitos y proyectos” [Olga Fernández: Successes and Projects]. Havana: In Cartelera, July 29, 1989. Pineda, Marcos. “Yo creo en el mensaje” [I believe in the Message]. Mérida, Venezuela: El Correo, April 22, 1989. Mauri, Oscar. “Abrir los ojos, soñar” [To Open the Eyes, to Dream]. Havana: In El Habanero, March 29, 1989. Sánchez, Carlos M. “Viajemos con el abuelo” [Let Us Travel With Granpa]. Havana: In Cartelera, March 26, 1989. Andricaín, Sergio.”Gentes y paisajes” [Peoples and Landscapes]. Havana: In Revolución y Cultura Nr.5, March, 1989. Díaz, Raimundo. “Olga no dejará los temas históricos” [Olga Will Not Abandon The Historical Themes]. Havana: In Bastión, August 8, 1988. Herrera, Pedro. “El Viejo Eduá es el que ahora cuenta” [Old Man Eduá Is the Story Teller Now] . Havana: In Juventud Rebelde, August 3, 1986. Boulit, Ilse. “El general cruza a galope” [The General Crosses at a Gallop]. Havana: In Bohemia Nr. 8, February 22, 1985. Pérez León, Roberto. “Un regalo para nuestros hijos” [A Present For Our Children]. Havana. In Tribuna de la Habana, December 21, 1984.